


Dead Men Don't Talk

by TheBlueSheep



Category: Gintama
Genre: Drama, Gen, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, post-joui war
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-09-02
Updated: 2016-10-11
Packaged: 2017-12-25 08:21:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 23,109
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/950855
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheBlueSheep/pseuds/TheBlueSheep
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Dead men don't talk," continued the man, then stood up and faced the gravestone. "Neither do they eat manju. Which is why I made a promise instead." - Otose might have been old, but she wasn't stupid. What made her trust a man she picked up from the graveyard; who made a silly promise over a few manju?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Copied from my FF.net page, but without the author's notes.

 

It was a cold winter day. The snow was silently falling onto the gravestones. On a whim, Otose had decided to go to the graveyard to visit her late husband’s grave. She had brought some manju as an offer. She set them down in front of the tombstone and was almost ready to leave.

“Hey, granny?” a voice suddenly asked. Otose looked up and saw an old man with grey hair sitting, his back leaning against the gravestone. “Are those manju? Can I have them? I think I’m about to die from starvation.”

His grey hair certainly looked like an old man’s, but his voice was that of a young one. “They don’t belong to me,” she said, surprised by the contradiction. “They belong to my husband. You should ask him.”

“Is that so?” said the man, and without asking, took the manju and ate them all.

“So, what did my husband say?”

The man raised his head and admitted, “No idea. Dead men don’t talk.”

“Don’t blame me if he curses you,” she sighed.

“Dead men don’t talk,” continued the man, then stood up and faced the gravestone. “Neither do they eat manju. Which is why I made a promise instead. I won’t ever forget this debt. Granny here probably doesn’t have that much time left. So, from now on, until she kicks the bucket, I’ll watch over her in your place.”

He turned and Otose could see why there was such a conflict between his hair and his voice. It was a young man at most 20 years old, probably even younger. He had unusual curly grey hair and red eyes that seemed dead to the world. However, thanks to years of experience, Otose could see the pain behind his apathy. Those were the eyes of an already broken man at the age of 20. A drowning man grasping for a single straw.

“You’ll watch over me, you say?” she smiled. The man smiled back. Otose could just barely see his hesitation in that. “Alright, let’s see what you can do then. However, I can’t have such a dirty-looking watchdog. Come with me. The owner must see to it that her dog is in good health. I’m Otose. What’s your name?”

“Sakata Gintoki.”

She nodded, then turned and walked away, not looking back. She didn’t need to. She could hear him following. Exhausted, starving, and probably also freezing, for he was wearing only a ragged yukata and the weather had got even colder by the time they left the graveyard, his breathing was a little heavier than normal, but not once did he complain.

Ever since the war ended, there had been a lot of war veterans around. Every single one of them had a broken soul reflected by the pain in their eyes and none of them was carrying a sword. Partly it was because of the sword ban, but that wasn’t all. It seemed like, after seeing most of their friends and comrades die, they were done with their fight. Not wanting to take part of this rotten world again, they just lived their lives, trying to just stay alive for yet another day. Sure, there were also those all-out patriots who, never wanting to give up, still tried to change the country with random acts of terrorism, but there were only a few of such organisations left. Most of them had disbanded when the war ended and the ones still functioning were small and weak, leaded by some idiots who obviously didn’t know when to give up, and so they didn’t really make that much of a difference.

The man following Otose seemed to be one of those veterans whose soul was broken by the war. However, even though he was exhausted, without a sword, and had clearly given up on the war, he still carried himself with a certain grace. Like a master swordsman. A true samurai. Maybe there was still hope to save this young man from fatalism, thought Otose. Anyhow, right now, that whatever grace he had, looked more like a force of habit, carved into his body, so maybe there was nothing she could do anymore. At least she could still give him a warm meal and something to wear so that he wouldn’t freeze to death in the winter if he decided not to keep his promise and flee. Otose wouldn’t have minded or been surprised by that either. It seemed as if he had seen too much and broken too many promises in his young life to keep a new one. She didn’t think he was a bad person, though, just weary and cautious.

“I have a bar in Kabukicho, that’s where we’re going,” said Otose, finally breaking the silence. The fact that he hadn’t even asked where they were heading made her a little uneasy. The man only nodded. He seemed to have some trouble with keeping up. It didn’t surprise her. Being out in this weather for who knows how long with an empty stomach and ragged clothes, of course he’d have trouble keeping up with her relatively fast pace. “It’s not too far away anymore,” she said and slowed down a bit. For a fraction of a second, there was a slight sign of gratitude on his face.

“Why would you pick up a stranger and show him where you live? I could very well be a simple thief for all you know. It wouldn’t be that hard to rob an old lady from everything,” he asked, confused.

“I guess I’m just a soft-hearted old woman. I couldn’t leave a man to die to the side of the road no matter if he is someone I know or not. Besides, you don’t look like you would steal anything from me.”

He smiled. “You’re going to be used by somebody one day if you keep offering manju to strays and showing them where you live.”

“You’re probably right about that,” chuckled Otose. “But then again, if nobody offered manju to the strays, this town would become boring. Kabukicho is the place where the trash is. People, who have no other place to go, usually end up in here. This town has no rules whatsoever. No real law reaches here. Most people, who still cherish their lives, have made their own set of rules, their basis of life, so to say, to which they keep true to. This is why Kabukicho is the perfect place for the broken.”

“The broken, huh?” he sounded sad even though he was smiling. “Guess that’s exactly what I am now.”

Otose realised her mistake and shut up. There was no need to remind him of his situation. She wondered why he had been in the graveyard in the first place. Was someone he knew buried there? More likely he just didn’t want to get in anyone’s way when he died. No better place to die than the graveyard, he might have thought. No, there was no way she could’ve guessed what went through his head behind those dead fish eyes.

-.-.-

They had made it to the Snack Otose without exchanging another word. She gave Gintoki a towel and a new kimono and showed him to the bathroom. He wanted to decline at first but Otose said not to worry and that she would extort the money from him later, to which he muttered a few words of thanks before spending the next half an hour in the shower. When he came out again, finally clean, she saw that his hair wasn’t grey after all. His head was actually covered with a huge fluffy mass of silver hair. He didn’t look so broken anymore, either. To be honest, he looked more like a tired and hungry child, cranky after hiking in the wild for the whole day, than like a man exhausted after having survived fighting in the war for a couple of years.

Otose gave him a bowl of rice but saw him being consumed by exhaustion and a rising fever even as he ate, so as soon as he was done, she led him to an unused bedroom in the back of the bar.

“Sorry for the trouble,” said Gintoki, lying on his futon.

“Didn’t I already tell you that the owner must see to it that her dog is in good health? Don’t worry about it. I’ll make sure you work your ass off for me later.”

“First money, now work. You really know how to use people, huh?” mumbled Gintoki.

“Go to sleep already, you unthankful bastard. Get rid of that fever so that I _could_ actually use you later. Now, unlike some unemployed person, I have a bar to keep so you just stay put and rest tonight.”

She didn’t really like the idea of leaving a sick person alone, but the bar really did need keeping and she figured that Gintoki would rather be alone right now, too. She just had to hope he’d sleep through the night and that his fever wouldn’t rise while she was gone.

-.-.-

The bar was unusually lively that night. She had hoped to spare a few minutes to check on Gintoki, but it turned out to be impossible. By the time she wanted to close up, there were still a few people left, most of them too drunk to hold a meaningful conversation for more than a couple of seconds. Still, all but one managed to understand enough to leave when she told them to. The one who stayed was an odd one. He had come in an hour or so ago and had ordered only one drink. After that he had placed himself to the furthest corner of the counter and dozed off. Although he looked like he was sleeping, every once in a while he opened one of his eyes and glared nervously at other people in the bar. Otose might have been old, but she wasn’t stupid. Quietly, she reached under the counter and took out a baseball bat. Keeping it hidden, she then went to wake up the man, but as soon as she reached to him, there was a sound of metal slithering against wood and she found herself facing a very nervous man with a very sharp blade. Always a bad combination.

“Are you sure you really want to do this?” she asked carefully.

“Shut up! I need the money. So please, just give me the money and I won’t have to hurt you.”

Knowing it wouldn’t do any good against a sword anyway, Otose let go of the bat and took out a cigarette instead. She lit it up and inhaled slowly.

“H-hey, hurry up! I haven’t got all night! Or do you need a little encouragement?” he raised the sword higher.

She exhaled the smoke. The man looked way too nervous to be a professional robber. This was most likely his first time.

“Why are you doing this? Wouldn’t it be better to lead an honest life?”

“Shut up! Don’t start with that honest life crap! You don’t know what I’ve been through! If you’re not going to give me the money then I’ll just k-kill you and take it myself. I-it’s that simple.”

“You’re not much of a thief, are you? Don’t you know that stuttering while making threats isn’t too convincing? Trust me, you’d be better off if you just left.”

His eyes suddenly turned cold and calculating. She knew that’s when he became really dangerous.

“Alright, then,” he said coldheartedly, readying his sword for a deadly slash. She saw it coming closer and closer. There was no way she could dodge it. Otose prepared herself for pain, closing her eyes.

But the pain never came. Instead, when she opened her eyes again, all she could see was a familiar huge mass of curly silver hair. Gintoki had captured the blade with his left hand. The sword had cut into his palm and the blood was dripping, but it didn’t seem like he was bothered by that. Instead he twisted his hand and the sword’s tip broke off.

“Hey, dickface,” he hissed, death in his voice. Then he punched him square in the face with his right fist, sending the man flying across the room. He landed with a huge crash onto a table which broke in half. Gintoki leapt lightly over the counter, walked up to the man, and picked him up from his collar.

“Y-you’re... S-Shiroyasha?” gasped the man. His nose was broken and bleeding furiously.

Gintoki raised an eyebrow. “You know who I am?”

“Y-yes, sir,” he answered, “I o-once fought in the same battle as y-you, sir.”

“So you also know what I can do to you, right?”

“Y-y-yes, sir,” he whispered, clearly afraid for his life now.

“Whoa, this makes it so much easier. Which faction were you in?”

“T-the Kiheitai, s-sir. A p-private, sir,” He was trembling badly now.

“The Kiheitai, huh? Doesn’t really sound like Takasugi to take in lowlifes like you even if he is an asshole,” Gintoki admitted. Then he smirked. “You know that Takasugi would’ve just cut you down right then and there? And I gotta admit, I wouldn’t have interfered, either.”

The man winced. “P-please, have mercy, Shiroyasha-sama. I have a pregnant wife waiting for me at home!”

“Mercy? Wazzat? Never heard of that. Were it up to me, I’d just kill you. It’s a pain not killing you. It would be so much simpler. However, luckily for you, it wasn’t me you attacked and so I don’t get to decide if your head will end up in a different corner than your body. So,” he turned to Otose, who was calmly smoking her cigarette. “What do you want to do with this trash?”

His words were harsh and he was emitting a deadly aura, but his eyes were begging, _'Please don’t make me kill another person.'_ She knew he would kill if she told him to. Otose sighed.

“Today the recyclable trash goes out. Burnable trash goes out tomorrow. You’d better remember that.”

He nodded and, dragging the man behind him, went to the shoji, opened it and threw him out. His broken sword followed him only seconds after.

“Go home to your wife and get a job so you wouldn’t have to do stupid shit like this again. It would be sad if your child would have to grow up without a father. We have enough miserable orphans in this world.” Then he closed the shoji.

“Th-thank you, Shiroyasha-sama!” sounded through the closed shoji doors. Otose could imagine him being on his knees, his head to the ground.

Gintoki turned and looked at the broken table. “Tch. What a mess.”

“Is your hand okay?” Otose asked.

“Hm?” Gintoki looked at his hand and seemed surprised upon finding it bleeding. “Oh. Yeah, it’s fine. The cut is shallow.”

“That’s good,” She took out a first-aid kit, motioned him to sit down and started to clean the wound. She was relieved to find that the wound was indeed shallow, but felt worried about his burning skin. His fever was rising again.

“I thought I told you not to move tonight,” said Otose shaking her head.

“And who said I was an obedient dog? Besides, didn’t I already tell you I’d watch over you? Geez, granny, did you forget already? What’s up with that? Do you have Alzheimer’s or something?”

Otose started bandaging his hand.

“Shiroyasha, was it?” She felt him tensing up hearing that name. “That’s quite the nickname you have made for yourself.”

“I never wanted that name,” Gintoki said quietly. “It’s just that before I even knew it, everyone already called me that. It’s hard to get rid of fitting nicknames,” he shrugged.

Otose nodded, accepting that explanation. She figured it wouldn’t be a good idea to pry into his past too much. Even she had heard some distant rumours about the legendary White Demon. She finished bandaging his hand.

“Now get back to bed before you receive any more brain damage from the fever.”


	2. Chapter 2

 

It took Gintoki a week before he could stand up again without feeling dizzy and ten days until he could stay out of bed for longer than just a trip to the bathroom. At times, his fever had risen so high that Otose was afraid he was going to die even though she had just saved him. To make matters worse, he couldn’t sleep properly either, being haunted by nightmares that made him stir around and woke him up in every few hours, leaving him panting and with an even higher fever.

However, while he was awake, Otose found herself wondering, what on earth was this man she had picked up from the graveyard thinking. He kept joking around and making silly comments even when he wasn’t feeling well enough to sit up and when his fever went down for a while, he asked for the newest Shounen Jump or strawberry milk. But even though he acted like a complete idiot, she found herself laughing at his jokes. It didn’t look as if he was taking anything seriously, not even his own nightmares. The only time he had been serious was when he asked about that man who had tried to rob the bar.

She hadn’t seen him after the incident, but having asked around a little, heard that after searching for a well paid job for a few days and failing to get one, he had wanted to commit suicide. Apparently the thing he was afraid of most, was being unsuccessful. Luckily, there was some young boy around, who had beaten some sense into him. The boy said that he was a samurai too, but was now working as a shop assistant, trying to pay off his father’s debts. After the man heard that, he did his best to let go of his warrior past and got rid of his sword, which was already broken. Then he abandoned his pride, which had been destroyed after he had tried to rob an old lady anyway, and got a low paying job at some factory. He wasn’t exactly happy, but it was still better than leaving his wife and unborn child alone.

When Gintoki was finally well enough, Otose really did make him work for her. She found that he made an excellent security guard and did a good job at making people pay off their tabs before leaving. He also made a great drinking buddy, but his lack of money made him leech off other people so he obviously couldn’t drink as much as he wanted. But during daytime, she often caught him sitting, staring off into space, looking bored. And even though he said he enjoyed the kind of life where he didn’t really have to do anything, she still made him look for a real job, saying that she didn’t actually need a security guard in her bar. Gintoki protested at first, but went job hunting after a while.

He was both hired and fired three times in one week. First, it was a pet shop where all he had to do was feed the fish and keep the shop clean. On the third day, while the owner was out buying food for the animals and he was out on a lunch break, he somehow had managed to leave every cage lock open, letting the animals roam free. The aftermath of that little mishap was catastrophic. Other than a destroyed shop and those three mice that had gone missing, there was also a missing cat and somehow a very happy crocodile. He was fired after he couldn’t explain why all the cages had been open.

Then he was hired into a loading job at the docks. He did a good job for a couple of hours, being able to lift heavy weights all by himself, but disappeared in the evening. He was later found sleeping in one of the barrels. When they woke him up, he only said that he didn't give crap about some cargo and that it was cold outside and the barrel was a great place to take a nice long afternoon nap.

After he got fired from his third, a simple delivery job where he had to drive around the city and get people their ordered food, he was sitting again behind the counter, his forehead against the cold wood and hands covering his head.

“So, what did you do this time?”

“It wasn’t my fault this time. Or none of the times, actually,” he said, his voice muffled through the counter. “Okay, maybe the second time was a little. But still...”

“What did you do then?”

“I said it wasn’t my fault. No one told me that the food wouldn’t survive through a car crash.”

“You crashed a car?”

“The car crashed me. I was just casually driving my scooter. By the way, you know how hard it is to drive a scooter through all this damn snow? Well anyway, suddenly, out of nowhere this huge truck came. I just barely managed to get away in the last second but both the scooter and the takeout did not. Funny thing is, they didn’t fire me ‘cause I crashed the scooter but ‘cause I didn’t get the customer his damn takeout. Gotta say, at least they’ve got their priorities right.”

“So, what’re you gonna do now?”

“I don’t know... I should pro’bly find a new job or something... Ahh, how annoying. I don’t wanna do anything anymore. It’s such a...”

His whining was interrupted by some loud commotion on the street. There was a quiet yelp and some laughing. Gintoki stopped immediately and sprang to attention. He opened the shoji and the two of them peeked outside.

They saw a group of aggressive-looking men standing in a circle, surrounding something little. Three of the five men were carrying swords which were, without a doubt, illegal. The other two looked like they just weren't trusted with a sword. They had the appearance of a closet and probably also the intelligence to match. The three swords were pointed towards the thing they were laughing at. It turned out to be a little girl lying on the snowy street, hands covering her head, sobbing silently. She looked way too young to be walking around alone without her parents.

“What’cha doin’ ‘ere li’l girl?”

“Think she doesn't kno’ it’s our place. We no need yer kinda useless dirty li’l rats 'ere, ” another said, and raised his foot with the intention of giving the girl a beating, his companions cheering him on.

But his foot never made the target, because the next thing he saw was a quick flash of red and silver, followed by a little longer flash of the blue sky, ending with the black scenery of the cold ground.

“Aniki!” yelled the gang members, shocked to see their boss flying through the sky and hitting the ground hard with his face and a lazy-looking silver-haired man standing over him.

“Bastard,” hissed one of them and pointed his sword towards the man. “How dare you oppose the Anti-Foreigner faction and do this to our Aniki?”

He charged but as his sword almost made contact, he was no longer the one holding it. The back of his head was hit with the hilt of his own sword and he fell down next to his boss, both unconscious. His sword was jammed into the ground next to him.

“You call yourself an Anti-Foreigner faction?” Gintoki looked at the crying girl, hands still covering her head. “Shouldn’t you guys be beating up Amanto instead of innocent little girls then?” he asked, picking his nose.

“Ya sonova bitch. Ya makin’ fun of us?” said the third man with a sword. He tried to look threatening but after seeing two of his comrades so easily beaten, failed miserably. He motioned the closets behind him to attack on his mark. “This li’l rat ‘ere ain’t innocent. She keeps goin’ ‘round askin’ weird questions.”

“That so? Then let me teach her what kinda questions should never be asked from strangers.”

“This district belongs to us. Go find yer own!”

“Aw, man, this is bad. I think I might be going blind then ‘cause I can’t see your name on it.”

“Then ya really are goin’ blind.” He waved his hand and the closets behind him attacked simultaneously. Gintoki sidestepped one of them easily and dodged a blow from the other, breaking through to the last guy with a sword. He slashed at Gintoki, but missed and then he already had an arm wrapped around his throat, cutting off his flow of oxygen. Gintoki turned to the closets who were slowly starting to understand that they had just lost.

“Listen here. Never get in my sight again. The next time I see you anywhere at all, you’ll die,” he said calmly, clearly enjoying the dumb faces that were staring at him, unable to do anything to help their comrade. “Now take your stupid gang and get the fuck outta here before I change my mind about not killing you right away.”

He let go of the guy and he fell to his knees, coughing. Gintoki watched the closets pick up their three fallen gang members, two still unconscious, and run away. The few spectators on the street quickly got back to their own business after Gintoki sent them a glare. Then he walked up to the girl who was still lying on the street, sobbing.

“Hey, are you hurt?” he asked softly. When she didn’t give an answer, he continued, “It’s okay now, those thugs are gone.” The girl still didn’t react. “They looked pretty damn pathetic while running away, too. You should’ve seen them.”

The girl slowly looked up to Gintoki with tears in her terrified eyes. She was shivering.

“It’s freezing out here,” He pointed at Otose who was standing smoking at the door. “See that old hag over there? She has a nice warm place and I bet if you asked nicely she’d also give you a cup of tea. So wipe that snot off your face and get in there already.”

To that, the girl suddenly started screaming, huge tears dripping from her eyes, and hugged Gintoki, clinging to his feet, almost making him lose his balance.

“Whoa, hey, stop it, brat. You’re getting snot on my clothes. It’ll be troublesome to wash it out later,” he said and tried to get her off his feet. She refused to let go, making walking an impossible option for Gintoki. He turned to Otose who was clearly amused seeing Gintoki having trouble with a small child. “C’mon, damn old hag, stop giggling like a schoolgirl on her first date and help me out here a little.”

“Your kid, you deal with it,” said Otose and disappeared into the bar.

“No, waaait! It’s definitely not my brat! You’re coming back, right? Please say you’re coming back! I don’t know how to treat children! Hey! Please come back! Pleaaase! Someone, get me out of here! I hate snotty little brats! Heeey!”

When Otose showed no sign of coming to his aid, he looked down at the still crying girl who clearly had no intention of letting go. He sighed and with one swift movement, twisted himself out of her grip and picked her up. Then he went to the bar, mumbling something about how everyone abandoned him and that humankind should never be trusted, carrying the girl who was now clinging to his neck, face buried into his kimono.

-.-.-

Although they tried everything from offering sweets as bribe to gentle force, it still took an hour to the girl to calm down enough before she could be removed from around Gintoki’s neck. Now she was sitting on a bar chair, one hand still squeezing Gintoki’s sleeve, other holding a steaming teacup, with a pile of candy in front of her. Gintoki, sitting next to her, made subtle attempts to steal her candy in every once in a while.

“Can you tell us your name?” asked Otose for the fifth time. She didn’t like pestering people like that, but they hadn’t got a word out of her yet, and it was impossible to help her if she didn’t say what was wrong.

The girl looked down and whispered something.

“I’m sorry. I couldn’t hear what you said.”

“She said her name was Mai,” said Gintoki. “Geez, granny, first you have Alzheimer’s, now you’re deaf too? Just how many health problems do you have?” He tried to snitch a candy but only received a slap against his hand from Otose. “Oww... I didn’t know you were so violent, granny. Well, at least you don’t have muscle atrophy, that’s for sure. You didn’t have to hit so hard, y’know. That hurt!” he whined, rubbing his hand. Mai smiled.

Otose glimpsed at her and then at Gintoki, who had also noticed her smile. “Then stop trying to steal candy from children, you perm-headed bastard.”

“It’s not like she’s eating them anyway! I just don’t like wasting food!”

“Candy isn’t even proper food!”

“That’s why she’s not eating any!”

“Now you’re contradicting yourself!”

“Why does everyone just assume that brats like candy anyway, huh? Not all children want to be unhealthy, y’know!”

“But you’re plenty unhealthy for any child out there! A grown man shouldn’t eat so many sweets!”

Mai started giggling. They stopped their argument.

“Mai-chan, right?” asked Otose.

She nodded.

“Can you tell me how old you are?”

She put down her cup and raised her free hand.

“Five?”

She shook her head, raised her hand again, showing all five fingers, then made a fist and raised one more finger.

“Six, huh? You’re quite the big girl then, aren’t you?”

She nodded proudly.

“But Mai-chan, why were you alone? Where are your parents?”

Mai winced, grabbed Gintoki’s sleeve with both of her hands and hid her face. Both Gintoki and Otose sighed. They still hadn’t got anything out of her. Well, at least they now know her name.

“C’mon, Mai-chan,” said Gintoki, a little annoyed. He tried to detach himself from her surprisingly strong grip. “Let go of my sleeve, I need to take a piss. Ah!”

“What’s wrong?” asked Otose.

“She’s asleep.”

“What? No way.”

“She fell asleep,” repeated Gintoki. “On my sleeve. While being interrogated... Well that’s annoying. Why’d she have to choose me? Man, I hate snotty little brats.”

There was a moment of silence in the bar. Then Otose spoke.

“I understand why you didn’t want to kill that man back then. He hadn’t really done anything that couldn’t be fixed. Besides, I guess you know pretty well what he’d been through. But there was probably nothing good in these thugs. Your skills are pretty good, right? Why didn’t you just take them out?”

“That’s because... Well,” he scratched his head, “I don’t really like killing.”

Otose nodded. She would’ve been happy with that.

“And,” Gintoki breathed in slowly, “If I had killed them, I’d have to face the same fate myself.” He breathed out and said, smiling that sad smile again, “If I didn’t, I’d really be contradicting myself.”

This time, the silence in the bar was longer. Now it was Gintoki who broke it.

“We should put her somewhere before you open up,” he suggested.

Otose was happy she could drop the topic. It was hard seeing a young man smiling that kind of smile. She ordered him to bring Mai to her room saying that she’d watch over her this night. Gintoki agreed readily.


	3. Chapter 3

 

When Otose woke up late the next morning as usual, the first thing she saw was that Mai was missing. When she closed up last night and went to her room, Mai had definitely been there, sleeping on an extra futon. The mattress and the pillow were still here, but both the blanket and Mai were not. There was no way Otose would have slept through a break-in, so Mai must have gone off by herself.

She got dressed quickly, then looked into the barroom first and finding it empty, went to wake up Gintoki to see if he knew where she was. She pushed the sliding doors aside not at all carefully.

“Hey, Gintoki! Wake up! Mai-chan is...”

She stopped. First, the problem at hand was no longer a problem, and second, she saw something that made her blink her eyes in disbelief. Gintoki was lying on his futon staring at the ceiling with an annoyed-to-hell-and-back look on his face. But that wasn’t what surprised Otose.  On top of Gintoki slept Mai, snoring quietly through her nose, arms around Gintoki’s chest.

“Finally!” he whispered. “Please get this brat off of me! She’s been like this for the most of the night and every time I try to move she just clings on to me even harder.”

Otose felt a little guilty. Mai was supposed to be in her room, not walk around the house in the middle of the night, finding Gintoki and hugging him like he was a giant teddy bear. After a few minutes they managed to free him from the little girl’s grip, giving her a pillow to hug instead.

“Ah, this isn’t good,” he said, standing up stiffly and glaring at Mai like she was some kind of monster. “I can’t feel my legs. I think they have to be amputated.”

“You wouldn’t be standing if it was that bad,” remarked Otose. “I’ll go make breakfast. You try to wake her up.”

Otose went to the kitchen to make breakfast. She had learned that even though Gintoki wasn’t too useful at cooking in the mornings as he never wanted to wake up early enough, but when she left him with an order to make a lunch, dinner, or snacks for the customers along with a threat of throwing him out if he didn’t make himself useful, his cooking was splendid. For the first few times it was his turn to cook, he had seemed a little out of practice, even though the food was still delicious. But after he got the hang of it again, Otose could tell that behind all that whining he actually enjoyed it, making dishes that could easily compete with that over-expensive stuff they served at the most famous restaurants.

When Gintoki entered the barroom ten minutes later, alone, saying that he couldn’t wake Mai up no matter what he did, breakfast was ready. Most people probably wouldn’t even have noticed it, but Gintoki looked a little tired, like he hadn’t slept all night, and Otose thought she knew why.

“Are you still having those nightmares?”

“Umm... Sometimes. It’s not that bad anymore, though. Nothing to worry about. _Itadakimasu!_ ”

He was a great liar, didn’t even blink an eye, but Otose had been a bartender for years and could recognise a lie from miles away.

Ever since she picked him up from the graveyard, he looked a little better every day. He wasn’t that thin anymore, every other noise from the street didn’t make him reach for his sword only to realise that it wasn’t there a second later, and his jokes were gradually getting better, and dirtier, as time passed. And the best thing was that he almost never looked that broken anymore. However, it seemed that his nightmares were just as bad as they were back then. That was probably also the reason he hadn’t caught even the little sleep he could have. He was most likely afraid of waking Mai, or even hurting her with one of his nightmares. She sighed.

“You know, I can’t have an unemployed good-for-nothing man living off my generosity forever.” Something that could’ve been fear flashed in his eyes but it was so fast, she wasn’t quite sure. “You’ve probably already noticed that there’s a second floor. It’s been empty ever since the last tenant moved out. The old guy used it as a wood workshop or something and left almost everything behind when he left a year ago, so it’s a little messy. I also used it as a warehouse for a while. I can rent it to you, if you want. And if you clean it up yourself I’ll give you the first month free.”

“What? Really, Granny? Yay! Thanks!” He looked a little too eager to get something for free. Though it might have been just because he probably hadn’t had a place he could really call home for a while.

“I’m only doing this because it’s troublesome to have an unused second floor. Don’t be so happy.” She reached under the counter and handed him the key. “Most of the things piled up there are just trash anyway so feel free to throw away everything you won’t need.”

-.-.-

Mai was still asleep when Gintoki came back down an hour later. He was covered with dust and was dragging a large garbage bag behind him, but he seemed to be in exceptionally good mood.

“Hey, Granny, what trash goes out today?”

“Remember it already, will you? It’s Wednesday, so today it’s recyclable trash.”

“Damn,” he kicked the bag behind him. “This is definitely not recyclable.”

“What’s in there?”

“Found the last tenant’s porn stash. And honestly, just how much of a pervert was that dude? This thing should be burned, completely obliterated from the face of Earth if possible.” He kicked the bag again. “I didn’t even know they made these magazines for old people. Who’d buy them? Just thinking about what I saw in there makes me want to throw up.”

“Hey, are you calling old people ugly?”

“Idiot! When talking about porn you can only refer to young ladies!”

He received a sake bottle against his head.

“Do not call me an idiot, you stupid braindead freak-haired brat,” she said, lighting a cigarette.

“Oww...” Gintoki moaned from the floor. “That’s what you’re mad about? Geez...”

“Anyway,” she pointed to the bag, “Good porn or bad, it’s still paper. So it should be recycled.”

“ _Technically_ paper. But this poor paper has been abused so badly I think it’s better to let it rest in peace so it wouldn’t have to go home in shame later. Besides, do you know what they use recycled paper for? No, no, I don’t even want to think about it. It’s better to just burn this paper. But then again... I’d have to drag it back up and wait until...”

“Friday,” she sighed.

“...Friday to take it out again. I don’t want to be under the same roof with _these_ dirty magazines for more than absolutely necessary. Yeah, sorry paper, but you’re gonna end up as toilet paper after all.”

“You’re making no sense at all.”

“Oh, by the way,” he reached into his kimono. “Who’re the dudes in the picture? Did it belong to the old perv? Or are they your children or something?”

“What picture?”

Gintoki handed Otose a picture with two young men in it. One of them had white hair and a scar on his face, and the other one was with brown hair, a smug smile, and a jitte in his hand.

“Where did you find it?” she smiled, feeling nostalgic.

“Behind that empty picture frame over the desk.”

“Oh? I wonder how it got there. Anyway, I don’t have children. My husband, Terada Tatsugorou, the dark-haired one on the picture, died young. The other one was his best friend. I think he still lives here somewhere. Haven’t seen him for a while, though.”

“Hmm, so that’s your whole family then?” he looked mildly interested.

“Yeah. That’s all. How about you? Do you have a family out there somewhere?”

“Nah, not really,” Gintoki answered simply, picking his nose. He didn’t look sad, maybe just a bit lonely.

“No parents?”

“Don’t remember.”

“Siblings?”

“Not that I know of.”

“Lover?”

“Never had the time to get serious with that,” he shrugged lightly and flicked a booger at the trash bag.

“So you were alone?” Otose shook her head in disbelief. Gintoki froze, and lowered his gaze until his hair covered his eyes.

“My sensei was the closest I had to a family. But that’s over too now,” he said quickly and stiffly, as if every word hurt. The change in mood was so sudden, it left Otose speechless for a moment.

“Sorry. You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.”

Gintoki raised his head again. His expression was painfully similar to the lost and broken one he had back then in front of her husband’s grave. Whatever had happened, it must have been horrible to break somebody down like that. Gintoki probably thought that being indebted to her, she had the right to inquire about his past and he the obligation to answer truthfully. He may have been damaged and swordless, but he was still a samurai with all his honour.

“No, I’m the one who...” He started but flinched and turned around before he could finish. “Oh, Mai-chan, you’re awake,” he said when he realised who was holding onto his kimono again. All the pain had vanished from his voice and expression in a second’s notice, but judging by the tension in his shoulders, he hadn’t quite regained his composure yet.

“Gin-chan, are you okay?” Mai asked quietly. She seemed to have noticed it too.

Gintoki smiled and ruffled her hair. “Sorry about that. I’m just fine, Mai.”

“But...”

“You’re really considerate for a brat. You don’t have to worry about me.”

“But if Gin-chan is alone...” The bar went silent; she looked at the floor and whispered, “I don’t want anyone to be alone like me.”

This was the first time Otose saw Gintoki so stunned. She slowly exhaled smoke from her cigarette.

"Mai-chan, are you hungry? Let’s get you some breakfast, shall we?" At the mention of food Mai quickly abandoned her glum mood and smiled. Otose then turned to Gintoki who still hadn’t moved. "What are you spacing out for, you perm-head? Stop that and think of a way to make it up to Mai-chan for getting her worried, instead."

“A-ah, right,” he pointed at the trash bag. “I’m... I’m just gonna take this outside. I’ll be right back.”

“What’s in the bag?” Mai asked cheerfully.

“Aren’t you a chatty nosy little brat,” he murmured, looking almost normal as he dragged the bag to the door. “Just a proof of humanity’s degeneration...”

He received another sake bottle against his head.

“Ow! Again? Man, what did I do this time?”

“Just take out the trash and don’t get lost on your way back. I’ll make you some tea.”

He looked at Otose who was smiling at him and then at Mai who was laughing chirpily, clearly enjoying Gintoki’s painful experience with a sake bottle. He considered something for a moment.

“Then I’ll take oolong tea,” he informed and walked out the door.

“Hey! Don’t make requests!” Otose yelled after him.

-.-.-

Gintoki did not, in fact, get lost on his way back. It just took him 10 minutes to find the door. He even suggested Otose to put the door into a more noticeable location as he stepped in. Now he was sitting at the counter sipping at his oolong tea, Mai on his left mimicking his movements.

“So, Mai,” he said. “Care to tell us why those thugs were picking a fight with a six-year-old?”

“I...” she frowned. “I wanted to know where Mommy went. Those guys looked like they would know something about the war so I asked. I didn’t know it would make them angry.”

“What do you mean?”

“Mommy said Daddy went to fight in a war and that she was going to find him and bring him back home. Then she left me at Uncle’s place and I haven’t seen her anymore.”

Gintoki and Otose exchanged a glance. Everyone still alive after the war, who still had a home to return to, should have made it back by now. So if her father never came back then that could only mean two things. He either found himself a new home and made a new family, or was already dead. Judging by the way Mai’s mother loved her husband enough to abandon her own daughter, it was probably the latter.

“When did she leave, Mai-chan?” Otose asked.

“I think it was two months ago. I’m sure she will come back home with Daddy soon.”

Two months were enough for the mother to realise that her search was futile.

“So where is your uncle? Wouldn’t he be worried about you by now?” Both Otose and Gintoki had tried to ask around last night, but no one knew anything about a missing child named Mai.

“I don’t know. He goes away often and usually comes back in two or three days. That’s okay, he always leaves me everything I might need while he’s gone. But he has never been gone for five days. I wonder if he’s alright.”

 “Do you like your uncle, Mai-chan?”

“Yeah,” she nodded. “He’s kind and funny and he always plays with me when he’s home. But...”

“But you don’t like it when he leaves, right?”

She shook her head. “I love Uncle, but I wish he’d be home more. I want Mommy to come back, too. The house is scary at nights when I’m alone.”

 _‘I don’t want anyone to be alone like me,’_ she had said. And she had clung to Gintoki, not letting him go even when sleeping. She accepted even a stranger’s company just to relieve her loneliness, and that same abandonment made her ask questions from sketchy guys, hoping they would know where her mother might be. She was left alone just like Gintoki was, but unlike Gintoki, who was now searching for something he could protect but at the same time was afraid it would break apart once again, she had yet to experience loss and was much more optimistic about her family and happiness ever returning.

“I once asked where Uncle was going all the time,” Mai continued. “He said something like, _‘I’m going to go not face my problems.’_ I don’t know what he meant by that.”

Gintoki clicked his tongue irritably. Otose resisted an urge to snap out that he wasn’t that much better himself, and instead just pointed at him with a cigarette.

“So, Mai-chan? What do you want this idiot to do for you? I’m afraid we won’t be able to find your mother right away, but we can help you look for your uncle right now.”

Mai made a small gasp and looked Otose and then Gintoki. “You’ll help me? Do you know where Uncle is?”

Gintoki emptied his teacup. “Well, I _did_ make a six-year-old worry and can’t say I feel too good about that. I do have to make it up to you. Besides,” he turned to Otose, “I think we have a pretty good idea where that uncle of yours might be, right, Granny? The question is where should I start?”

Otose suggested checking her home first in case her uncle had returned. Then she gave Gintoki a list of the most popular bars and clubs in the area and promised to use her connections in the town to gather some information herself.

“Oh, yeah,” Gintoki said as he was about to leave with Mai. “You’re not lost, are you Mai? You know where your home is, right?”

“I know where home is...” she answered and Gintoki let out a relieved sigh, but Otose suspected something.

“Do you also know how to get there?” she asked.

Mai smiled apologetically.

“Are you serious?” Gintoki ran a hand through his hair. “Well, whatever. Let’s just walk around until you recognise something. I got a little cash from pachinko yesterday. Let’s go waste it on strawberry milk!”

“Yay!” Mai exclaimed happily and skipped to his side. “But I like coffee milk more.”

“What? How dare a brat like you have a more mature taste than me?”

Otose watched them leave, Gintoki preaching Mai about how children should eat more sweet things and Mai laughing, jumping around, trying to take his hand. As they walked down the street they looked like two children bickering about who would get the last cookie in the jar. The bar was left uncomfortably empty.


	4. Chapter 4

The sun had set more than an hour ago and the streets were only vaguely illuminated by the full moon, a few street lamps, and some flashy shop banners. There were already a few customers in the bar when Gintoki stepped into Snack Otose, Mai sleeping soundly, being carried on his back.

It had taken Gintoki and Mai half a day and two visits to local cafes for a parfait and a snack break, but eventually they found her home. Unfortunately, the house was empty and the neighbours hadn’t heard anything. They didn’t even know that there was a small girl living alone in there.

When Gintoki saw Mai getting tired of their trip to the many bars and clubs in Kabukicho in search for her uncle, he wanted to return to the bar, but Mai insisted that they searched further. During their third snack break, which was held pretty late, Mai had fallen asleep right by the table.

Gintoki looked even more exhausted under the fake fluorescent light of the bar than he had been in the morning. Otose told him to go get some sleep, but he just shrugged off her concern saying that the night was the best time to be searching for a drunkard and disappeared into the night again.

“Hey, Otose-san? Where did that guy go?” one of the regulars asked a little later, cheeks flushed and eyes shining from alcohol.

 “Who? Gintoki?”

 “Yeah, yeah, him. The guy with white hair. The one who’s been here every night for the last few weeks.”

All the customers were already at least a little tipsy and everyone turned their attention to Otose and the man, hoping for an interesting conversation.

“I’m not sure,” Otose shrugged. “He went off to search for something. Why? Does he owe you a drink or something? You should give up on that. There’s no way you’ll ever see that drink.”

“No, not that. I was just wondering that you have kept this bar by yourself for years, right? I always thought you didn’t want any staff here.”

“Staff? Are you kidding? I’d never have him as a staff member. He’s too unreliable for that.”

“Then why’s he here?”

“He made me a promise when... It’s not my place to tell you about him, actually. Why don’t you ask about it yourself? I’m not sure if he’ll answer you, though.”

“But if he’s so unreliable, how do you know he’ll keep the promise?”

“He hasn’t broken it yet and he’s had enough opportunities to do so. I think he’ll keep his word. At least for now,” Otose added.

“I wouldn’t trust him that much. Who the hell is he? Where did he come from anyway? And what’s up with that weird white hair and those creepy red eyes? He looks suspicious.”

“But you know, he reminds me of something,” another joined in. “A friend of mine fought in the _Joui_ war and he said there was a real demon fighting amongst them; a demon with white hair dyed red with enemy blood as he tore across the battlefield. They called him Shiroyasha.”

“I heard about him too,” a third one said. “They said he once completely annihilated an enemy company of 200 all by himself.”

“I heard it was 500,” the first one said. “I doubt he was real, though. He was probably made up just to encourage the troops. No one, no matter how good, could pull off something like that.”

“Oh, he was real, alright,” the second argued. “My friend personally knew Katsura Kotarou and Shiroyasha. But it was the two of them who held back an enemy army of 1,000 so that the rest of them could retreat.”

“No, I’m not talking about that. Everyone knows about that,” the third waved him off. “I mean the time when the Amanto brought new troops and gunboats. The patriots were almost losing the battle and so Shiroyasha went off by himself to take down one of their ships and everyone on it. And after that feat, exhausted and injured as he was, he still joined the main battle once again. It’s like he was always seeking blood. Some even thought it was all he fought for. I think he really was a demon.”

“Well, whether he was a demon or not and no matter how many enemies he defeated, he still went missing after the war. Even if he was real, the Shiroyasha was probably captured and executed, if you ask me. I don’t think this Gintoki guy can be the Shiroyasha,” the man turned to Otose. “But I still wouldn’t trust him if I were you, Otose-san. Who knows what he did in his past and what plans he might have with an old lady now,” he said wagging a finger at her as if preaching someone remarkably older than himself wasn’t weird at all. Otose didn’t answer.

-.-.-

The first thing Otose confirmed the next morning was if Mai was where she should be. That taken care of, she went to clean up the bar, leaving Mai hugging a pillow on her futon.

Gintoki hadn’t come back to Snack Otose last night. Otose had hesitated for a moment when she was about to lock the door but then decided that it wasn’t her business to worry about a grown man being alone in the night. She doubted he’d be stupid enough to keep searching until morning. Besides, he now had a place to stay. Even if the second floor wasn’t at its best state, he’d probably slept in much worse places than a messy apartment.

And indeed, half an hour later she heard steps on the wooden staircase outside, the shoji opening right after.

“M’rning, Granny,” Gintoki mumbled.

“So the second floor is good enough to live in now?”

“More or less, yeah. What’s for breakfast?”

“You could make your own breakfast then. This is not a soup kitchen.”

“Nah, I don’t have the stuff to cook with yet. Gotta get stuff like pots and stuff... and stuff,” the great literate yawned, rubbing sleep from his eyes. He honestly didn’t look any less tired than yesterday and Otose wondered if the idiot actually had searched for the whole night, trying to escape from his nightmares.

“You have the money to get those?”

“I won pretty big in pachinko, actually. And I more or less did get paid for those jobs I briefly had. Found this pawn shop the other day. Maybe I can get some things cheap from there. And maybe sell some of the trash stored up there,” he pointed at the ceiling. “That bokutou looked pretty decent, but most of that stuff is pretty useless. I mean, what the hell would I do with a wooden horse? This is not the Trojan war.”

“No one will buy that. I’ve tried,” she said and set out a breakfast, ignoring a knowing smile from Gintoki. The bastard knew she’d be offering him breakfast anyway.

“Who knows, maybe you just lack the skill of a salesperson. Y’know, you gotta turn attention to the good sides of the thing and be careful not to mention the bad sides and then you can sell almost anything for much more than it’s worth. That’s the secret of getting rich.”

“You sound worse than one of those telemarketing frauds. They at least have the courtesy to sell their trash cheap,” she remarked and turned on the TV.

_‘Good morning! This is Ketsuno Ana! This is my first day working here. I will try my best, so please treat me well! On weather report, today will be sunny! Please look forward to a warm spring day...’_

“She sure seems nice...” Gintoki mused out loud. “Why can’t I have a cute girlfriend like her? Ah, right, it’s because of my perm. Can’t get girls with this natural disaster...” he pulled a strand from his bangs straight and then let it go again. It made a slight _boing_ sound as it returned to its original shape.

“Don’t blame it on your hair, you pathetic excuse for a man.”

“Oi, did you just...”

“Get a job, maybe then you’ll get a girl too,” Otose continued without letting herself be interrupted.

Gintoki glared at her for a moment, probably considering a retaliation or two for that insult, but then decided that he didn’t really care what he was called. “Nah, that’s too much work. Besides, searching for a little girl’s lost uncle is kind of a job. A tough job at that, too. Turns out the dude’s like a ghost. No one has never even heard of him. Maybe it was a little premature to guess he was a simple drunkard,” Gintoki yawned again.

“Fine. If you can find him, I’ll let you off this time. Just remember that if you can’t pay me the rent next month I _will_ throw you out.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Gintoki said indifferently.

“By the way, did you know him?” Otose asked.

“Who?”

“Mai’s father.”

“Riiight... What was his name again?”

“Midorikawa Katsu.”

Gintoki sighed and looked into the distance for a few seconds. “Don’t think so. We weren’t the only ones out there, though. He might have been in a different faction. Besides, _we_ did our best to notify the family if something happened. There were others who only wanted to drive out the Amanto and take back the country.”

During the past few weeks Otose had learned that there were a number of topics that were better left undiscussed with him as they seemed to stir up painful memories. Well, he would always answer Otose’s questions anyway, directly or more often not, even if he looked like he didn’t really want to. Gintoki never brought up the war himself, but didn’t seem to mind talking about it as long she didn’t ask about personal things. But last night’s talk with the customers had reminded her the way Gintoki filled the room with a demonic presence when her life was threatened, and that had left her more uneasy than she would’ve liked, so she decided to ask.

“You weren’t one of them? Wasn’t that what this war was about?”

“No. Not for me, anyway. I never cared about who runs the country.”

Otose almost winced. She didn’t fancy the idea of having to teach a blood-crazed demon how to love.

“If you didn’t fight for the country then what did you fight for? What did you care about?”

“To be honest, I’m not really sure,” there was that sad smile again. “Whatever I thought I was fighting for fell apart pretty fast. For a while I told myself it was for revenge that I kept on going, but that wasn’t quite right either. I guess it was to protect as many as I could. Though, in the end I failed at that too.”

That statement made Otose feel bad. He had already told her he didn’t like killing, and saved both her and Mai without giving it a second thought. She shouldn’t have taken those rumours seriously.

“Anyway, I’ve got some stuff to do before Mai wakes up. I’ll take her with me later. Maybe her uncle is using an alias. In that case it’s pointless trying to find him by his name only,” he yawned again, stretching his shoulders.

“Don’t overwork yourself. You look tired. You should try to get some sleep.”

“As if I’d overwork myself for some brat. I’m fine,” Gintoki assured her. The broken man pushing aside that shoji and squinting his eyes at the sun was no demon to speak of. Only someone too strong and who cared too much for his own good, drowning in sorrow and regret.

-.-.-

Gintoki flipped through a pack of money with his thumb, whistling a happy tune that sounded suspiciously like Doraemon theme song. As he had thought, he could sell the wooden horse for a decent price and the old lady from the pawn shop promised to come and check out the other things the day after tomorrow.

After that he went to a pachinko parlour to try out his luck and won there, too. He couldn’t understand why Granny was so insistent on him finding a job. If he just kept winning like this at pachinko he’d never have to work again. Hell, he might someday even be rich enough to pay back what he owed to Granny. But as long as he couldn’t, he’d just have to keep on answering to her questions whether he liked it or not. Most of the time he didn’t really mind. He just wished he could answer her without having a mental breakdown every other time. The only good thing was that he could hide it well enough. This morning, too. If he still could, if all his tears hadn’t already dried up, he would’ve cried. He really hated being an emotional wreck like this, but he didn’t want to just ignore her too. After all, Granny had the right to question a stranger after saving his life and helping him more or less get back on his feet again. She’d already done too much for him and she was _still_ worried about whether he got enough sleep or not. The damn old hag just cared too much and that made him slightly uncomfortable.

He was pretty sure he wouldn’t get rid of those nightmares for a while, if ever at all. They would come and go in a completely random manner, sometimes waking him up before he could even entirely fall asleep and sometimes they’d take him off-guard only after a few hours of sleep. So he might as well take Granny’s advice and try to take a nap if Mai’s still sleeping. The early spring sun shining in the blue sky made him feel snugly drowsy and he thought he might be able to catch a few hours of sleep right now.

There was a small crowd in front of Snack Otose, making him wonder what was going on. He knew he should check it out, but felt too lazy to actually care. He was sure Granny could handle things like this well enough on her own. Maybe he could actually use the crowd to sneak past the bar without Granny noticing him. He could use the extra time to sleep a little. She’d probably come search for him upstairs and wake him up if he wasn’t back in a few hours.

_“...Maybe we should call the police...”_

_“...Idiot, the police are useless around here, especially with_ them _...”_

_“...But somebody should do something...”_

_“...Are you kidding me? I don’t want to get involved with them...”_

There was obviously something wrong with the crowd. One foot on the stairs, Gintoki peeked past them and felt his heart sink. The shoji doors were carelessly kicked away and as much as he could see, the bar was a mess. His sense of dread grew even more when he couldn’t see or hear Granny anywhere. Something had happened and he wasn’t there to stop it.

Not turning any attention to the angry protests, he made his way through the crowd pushing aside anyone unfortunate enough to be in his way, and looked inside. There was broken glass and wood on the floor, two broken tables, and all the chairs were pushed over. There were deep cuts on the counter. It seemed to have taken damage from some kind of bladed weapon.

He turned on his heel, grabbed the first man behind him by his collar, and hauled him closer.

“What happened here? You have five seconds,” he hissed at him in pure fury. He probably should’ve been nicer to him, but he needed answers fast.

The man winced at the suffocating death threat with his eyes crossed a little due to how close the threat was to his nose.

“I don’t know! I was just passing by! It was already like this! Let go!” He tried to loosen the iron grip on his kimono.

“Tch, useless,” Gintoki spit out, grabbed his arm and threw him into the crowd, not moving from his stance, and not caring if anyone got hurt. Then he raised his voice a little so that it could be heard by everyone, but not enough to be yelling. “I don’t care who, just tell me what happened here.”

Silence was all he received. These bastards were only a waste of time. But as he turned back to the bar a quiet voice called out behind him, “I-I saw what happened. It was some kind of Amanto. They took the little girl and trashed the place, then walked away.”

“What about Granny?” he clenched his fists. He knew he couldn’t hide the desperation in his eyes. He knew he shouldn’t have tried to protect anyone anymore. He should have learned his lesson already. “I’m asking, where is Otose?! _And where are those bastards now?!”_ he didn’t bother with trying to keep his voice even anymore. He’d kill those bastard freaks for messing with his life when it was about to turn almost normal for the first time in so long.

The crowd had already started to dissipate as most of them didn’t want to have anything to do with this. Kabukicho was full of different spectacles that sometimes didn’t involve a threat to their lives and in some rare cases not even crazy people. Gintoki didn’t care about them. If they weren’t useful, he’d just have to find out the assholes behind the destroyed bar by himself. He stepped in and looked closer at all the details he could see. He took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down and think straight.

Those dents on the destroyed tables suggested to some kind of hoofed Amanto. As far as he knew, there were a number of hoofed Amanto on Earth, but only a few of them were openly hostile. So it either had to be the boar type, the moose type, or the bison type. That could prove to be a problem if he didn’t have a proper weapon with him.

The cuts on the counter were deep and had ragged edges. _‘Definitely not a katana. Probably a heavy two-handed sword; not professionally mastered,’_ Gintoki noted grimly to himself. That would exclude both the boar type and the moose type Amanto. The boar type would rely on their knowledge on ranged weapons and the moose type on their horns rather than any kind of weapons at all. That means that he’d have to find a band of bison type Amanto who probably had someone controlling them, or they wouldn’t have bothered themselves with simple earthlings. They weren’t exactly the smartest Amanto out there, but they certainly knew who were lower than them and how to make sure they knew _exactly_ just how much lower they were.

But he still couldn’t figure out why they would attack a bar in the middle of the poorest part of Edo. Maybe someone had figured out who he was and wanted to pay back for everything he had done during the war. He doubted that was the case, as unlike Takasugi and Zura he had managed to keep his real name hidden, but it wouldn’t have surprised him, either. He _had_ been quite famous, after all.

Well, whatever the cause, he’d find the answers when he’d trash their embassy. He didn’t have anything to protect, so he didn’t care if he ended up with a capital punishment. He just needed to pick up some kind of a weapon from somewhere on his way.

“Gintoki? What happened here?” someone asked right behind him.


	5. Chapter 5

“The usual cancer sticks, Otose? That’ll be 320 yen,” said the old bat at the cigarette shop.

“What? Did the price go up again? Last time you sold it at 300 yen.”

“Inflation hits us all hard. Don’t act like you didn’t raise the prices at your bar.”

Otose sighed and gave her the money, getting a pack of Seiten in exchange.

“You should quit smoking, anyway,” the old bat continued. “Isn’t your age catching up to you? I see you have one foot in the grave already.”

“Then stop staring at other people and look at yourself. I think I see a black figure with a scythe behind your back. Have you picked out your coffin yet? You should do it quickly before it takes your soul.”

She laughed, and Otose lit a cigarette, smiling.

“So how is your young charge doing? Still working as a delivery man?”

“No, he got fired a few days ago.”

The old bat sighed. “Don’t you think it’s about time to throw him out then? He’s been there for how long? A little over a month? Even if he was nearly dead at first, shouldn’t he be getting back on his feet by now? Maybe make himself useful?”

“Maybe. Well, at least he’s trying, so I’m not going to give up yet. I think he still has some fight left in him. And he probably knows I will throw him out if he doesn’t pay his rent properly.” She stopped for a moment. “Probably. It’s hard to tell if he actually listens to people sometimes.”

“You’re too soft, Otose,” she shook her head. “But well, it’s your own funeral. Don’t say I didn’t warn you,” she shrugged and Otose really couldn’t say anything to that.

She bid farewell to the old bat and went her way, but before going back to the bar she also stopped by a convenience store and picked up some fresh eggs and two cartons of milk - one coffee and one strawberry flavoured.

Maybe the old bat at the cigarette shop was right and she really should have forced Gintoki to bring her the new pack of cigarettes before he left. Not that it really mattered, because Mai was still asleep and probably wouldn’t wake before well after noon and going to the cigarette shop was just a ten minute walk, but why not use the cheap labour she had unintentionally picked up. Though, Gintoki had been even more tired than usual lately so maybe it wouldn’t have been a good idea to force him to do too much additional work for now. Besides, it was a good excuse to get out of the uncomfortably quiet bar.

She had handled the bar by herself ever since Tatsugorou died in battle and she took the name Otose, and it had never bothered her too much. Sometimes she hired some young girl to serve the customers or rented out the second floor, but no one had stayed too long and she was fine with that. For a long time now the quiet had been something she didn’t even notice.

But then came some loud obnoxious brat, barely holding his own broken pieces in two hands, on the verge of dropping them, so horribly lost and not knowing what to do, and Otose couldn’t help but to lend him a hand and maybe a bowl where he could keep his pieces in for the time being. At least until he found a glue to fix himself up again. She wasn’t a fool to expect anything in return, but in some odd way he had given her something. Whether it was a good thing or not, but she could no longer tolerate the quiet mornings in her house. Without even noticing Otose had started to enjoy the feeling of someone else waking up, moving around, making noise, a lot of noise sometimes, and just generally being there. Maybe it was just her age reminding itself, but it was nice to have someone to banter with in the mornings and she allowed herself to hope it wouldn’t end too soon.

As soon as she turned around the corner she knew immediately that there was something terribly wrong. The shoji doors to her bar were lying neglected on the street and there were people whispering, but for some reason they were keeping their distance from the entrance, trying their best to look like they weren’t interested in what was going on.

Any other time Otose would have acted coolly about such things, preferring to stay calm until she knew exactly what was going on and only then release divine punishment on whoever dared to disturb her peace, but this time she could only think of one thing.

_‘Where is Mai? Is she safe?’_

She rushed to the entrance, carefully avoiding stepping on the doors; not that it made much of a difference - they were destroyed anyway. The first thing she saw in the dim room was a familiar mass of silver hair. Then she saw the disaster in her bar. Chairs flipped over, tables broken, her expensive solid wood counter damaged. And worse – no sign of Mai.

“Gintoki?” He whirled around and the mixture of emotions on his face was almost painful to follow. It started with anger, then relief, worry, loss, anger again, and then, to her surprise, total apathy. “What happened here? Where’s Mai-chan?” she demanded.

Gintoki turned away. “Not here,” he said emotionlessly.

 “I didn’t ask where she isn’t.”

“Might as well have.”

She took a deep breath. “Is there a way to get her back?”

“Maybe.”

She released a sigh. “So who took her?”

“Amanto,” Gintoki hissed and Otose frowned. Why would Amanto care to come to the poorest part of Edo to wreck a bar and kidnap a girl? It didn’t make any sense. However, Gintoki seemed to know something and even if he didn’t want to talk, she’d make him spit out everything he knew. But later.

Gintoki flinched slightly when she passed him to take a closer look at the damage. She set the two cartons of milk onto the counter before rounding it to get to the cash register. As she had thought, they had broken in and taken all the money, but luckily enough she had emptied it properly last night so they hadn’t taken much. What really annoyed her was that they had destroyed a part of her cherished sake collection and the sad shards of glass were lying all over the floor. The phone was in pieces, broken plastic soaking in a pool of her precious alcohol. She would have to ask the shop across the road to make the call.

“Do you need backup?” she asked Gintoki. He still hadn’t moved and it was starting to piss her off.

“For what?”

“To save Mai-chan, of course. There are some people who owe me favours. I can ask them to-” she stopped abruptly. He was avoiding her eyes. “Don’t tell me… You…”

“I made a promise to protect _you_ , not some random brat,” he said very quietly. Then he turned slowly and picked up one of the doors on the street. The translucent paper was torn and the wooden frames damaged, but he somehow managed to fit it back to its rightful place.

 “I have no idea why they came and I have no idea why they only took the brat,” he continued, picking up the other door. “If it’s some kind of revenge  then there is no reason for me to risk my life for her when those bastards might as well come back to finish the job. The one I have to protect is here, not there. So the place where I have to be is also here, not there.”

“Are you really willing to sacrifice a little girl for a stupid promise?”

He froze for a moment, but then continued messing with the shoji until it slipped into its place with a loud crack.

 “Yes,” he said, carefully trying out if the doors still worked. They creaked a little, but seemed to do their job well enough.

“I’m only going to say this once so listen carefully, Gintoki,” she sighed. “Look, I know it just as well as you do - you made that promise for yourself, not for me. It’s you who has to set the rules, isn’t it? So tell me, what do you mean by ‘protect’? What exactly are you protecting? The way I see it, there is nothing here you need to protect. What you need to protect right now is somewhere else.”

He laughed darkly. “What, you think I’m a hero worthy saving a little girl? Is that what you think? You’ve got me all wrong, old hag. I’m no hero. I’m a bloody murderer who can’t save anything. All I can do is destroy lives.”

“You’ll never find a life worth living if you don’t take it into your own hands. Fatalism won’t make anyone happy. It will only destroy you and everything around you.”

“What the hell are you babbling about, old hag? I’m already destroyed and so is everything around me. I fought for nothing. I killed for nothing. My friends suffered for nothing. They died for nothing. All those strategies, months and months of fighting in the mud, snow, waiting for new supplies to arrive only to get a half of what we were hoping and a quarter of what we were promised, it was all pointless. I was forced to make a choice where all answers were wrong and as a result I lost everything I wanted to protect,” he said coldly, finally looking her straight in the eyes. They were the cold eyes of a warrior. “There is nothing left for me. So why care about anything? Fatalism is the easiest way to go.”

“I see…” She had never seen him act so inhuman. “Well then, it seems I was wrong about you. I’d rather be alone than have a coward as my watchdog.”

“I understand.” He smiled a little smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. “I did warn you though, didn’t I? That if you keep picking up strays you would end up getting used some day.”

She laughed. “True enough. You owe nothing to me. It was my own fault thinking you were worth something and I apologise for that. But you have to set it straight with my husband yourself.”

Gintoki shrugged. “Breaking a promise to a dead man is nothing new for me. If he wants to curse me he’ll have to get in line. See ya, Granny.” He turned to leave.

“Gintoki, wait.” He stopped with one hand on the door. “If you ever need shelter from the cold again, then my bar opens at 6 every evening. I’ll sell you a drink or two, but only if you have the cash.”

“Yeah…” He seemed to hesitate. “One last thing, Granny,” he drawled without looking back. Otose knew this would be important, so she made sure she wouldn’t miss any of his words. “Your fried rice lacks a little in taste,” he said, then quickly slid the shoji shut with a loud screech.

“Yours isn’t that much better!” she yelled after him. Why did she even expect anything from an idiot like him? He never said anything smart.

But the bar was left empty again and the two cartons of milk looked sad and lonely on the ruined counter.

“Stupid brat.”

-.-.-

A boy and a young man in black and gold uniforms walked on the street.

“Okay, repeat what the old man told us,” the older one said.

“Why? Did you forget already, Hijikata-san? Can’t have that. If you forget important things like that you might as well die young, Hijikata-san.”

“Not for me, you idiot, I’m not the one always causing trouble. And I’m not the one who’s risking his position in Shinsengumi for being too young. You should be glad old man Matsudaira made an exception for you. Besides, you do realise that if we screw this up, we _all_ might get kicked out of Edo? Or worse, it’s seppuku for all of us. Even for brats like you.”

“Are you joking? I only cause trouble for you, Hijikata-san. I would be very happy if _you_ would have to commit seppuku, Hijikata-san.”

“You know, Sougo, normal people wouldn’t say that out loud. Ah, sorry ‘bout that, bro…” Hijikata stopped and looked after the man he just bumped into.

“What’s the matter, Hijikata-san?”

“No, nothing… What the hell is his problem? Bumping into someone and not even saying sorry. He pisses me off…”

“That guy?” Sougo turned as well to watch the man with silver hair and a plain dark kimono walk away. “He reeks of trouble.”

“Yeah. We should arrest him.”

“For what? For smelling like murder? You smell like murder, too, Hijikata-san. And it’s not like we can follow him and wait for him to do something illegal. Well, _you_ could, since the vice chief doesn’t do anything useful anyway.”

“What was that, you bastard?”

The boy sighed. “Look, it’s not that I care about your life, but there’s still that wrecked bar we need to check out and for the sake of Shinsengumi, I wouldn’t mess with that guy right now. I think I get why old man Matsudaira warned us about Kabukicho and the people who live here. If everyone here’s even half of what _he_ is, then there’s no wonder they call this town lawless. And that guy’s really dangerous.”

“You think so?”

“Yeah. He noticed us, but didn’t spear us a second glance,” he said seriously. “Normally I’d call it being cocky, but he’s different. He knows his own strength and evaluated our strength and he knows that we are not a threat to him even if he doesn’t have a weapon. He’s resolved to do something and won’t stop for anyone who gets in his way. I don’t think even the two of us together could take him on right now.”

“You serious? I mean, I know you’re good, but telling all that just by having one look?”

“What are you talking about, Hijikata-san? I was joking. Joking. No one can tell that about someone they just bumped into on the street. He’s probably just some drunk with a really bad hangover. Geez, you’re so gullible, Hijikata-san.”

“Huh? What?” he turned to his young companion, but he was already gone from his side. “Wait! Dammit, Sougo, get back here! And don’t teach your sadistic ways to that cat! Cats are already nature’s biggest sadists!”

He ran after his subordinate, a hand on the hilt of his sword as if he was ready to draw it.

-.-.-

“So how is your wife, Saigo? Shouldn’t you be with her?” Otose asked, still gathering up glass shards from the floor.

“I left Azumi to look after her and Teru-kun. And she’s doing better now, anyway.”

“I’m glad to hear it. Tell her that when she recovers I will treat the both of you for some sake. Take Teru-kun with you, too. I have some leftover strawberry milk in the fridge.”

 “What are you talking about? Who would want to drink in a rundown bar like this? I’d much rather give you some special service in my club, but unfortunately we don’t let monster hags in,” Saigo mused, picking up a table and bending the grotesquely crooked metal leg straight again seemingly effortlessly. But when Otose didn’t answer to the obvious insult, he looked up. “I’ll be sure to tell her that. Anyway, shouldn’t you call the police?”

“There was no need. Someone from the street already did that. Two from that new group, what were they called again, Shinsengumi? - showed up, too. They left just before you arrived. I doubt they’ll be of any use, though. The police are all too afraid of the Amanto and they were both just brats. I think the younger one wasn’t even fifteen, and after I told them that Amanto were probably behind all this, they just told me to file a report and that they’d do their best to find Mai.”

“So you sent your new ex Joui patriot after the kid instead? I heard you picked one up and let him stay here.”

Otose didn’t answer, just kept collecting the broken glass.

“He did go after her, didn’t he?” Saigo asked.

“He said that isn’t willing to risk his life to save a little girl, but to be honest, I’m not sure what’s he going to do,” she confessed. “I thought I’d try giving him a little push, but maybe it was too early for that and the push I gave him might have been too strong. Mai-chan was missing and I said some things I shouldn’t have. I might have broken his spine, and made him an invalid, Saigo.”

 “If he was broken just because your little pep talk then he was useless from the beginning.” Saigo picked up another table. “So what are you going to do now?”

“I’ll wait until tonight and if Mai’s not back by then, I’ll organise something.” Otose stayed silent for a while. The broken glass falling into the bowl filled the bar with the rhythmic sound of _clink... clink... clink..._

“Tell me, what do you know of Shiroyasha?”

“Shiroyasha?” Saigo asked, surprised. “Is that who you’re dealing with?”

“So you know of him?”

“Not much. Only what I’ve been told. They came after I left the war so I never met any of those young ones, but I’ve heard enough stories to know that they were monsters.” He decided the table he was handling was useless and threw it into the growing pile of broken furniture.

“Weren’t you a monster yourself?” Otose smiled.

“That’s what I was called, but that was different. When the war became too much, I just left. I had a wife waiting for me at home, so it wasn’t too hard. But they kept fighting until the very end with no one keeping them from giving their everything to the war. I wouldn’t be surprised if there was no humanity left in them.

“There were four of them. They were just kids when they first showed up, some say fifteen, some sixteen, but they rose quickly and soon took over the entire resistance. Or what was left of it, anyway. I can’t tell if they were a blessing or a curse to the Joui, but I can say that without them the war would have ended much sooner. The two great leaders - Takasugi Shinsuke and Katsura Kotarou were definitely the base for the final resistance. Sakamoto Tatsuma - the strategist whose sword was not to be taken lightly. He took care of the negotiations and supplies. And then there was Shiroyasha, the elite soldier, seemingly fighting only for the sake of fighting, admired by hundreds, feared by thousands. His name suited him well for he fought like a demon, taking out entire companies by himself. Shiroyasha is a war machine with no human emotions, eternally seeking blood - that’s what they told me.

“I’ll give it to you straight, Otose. What kept me human was the fact that I had someone waiting for me. That Shiroyasha kid had no one, as far as I know. He might as well be gone far enough to abandon a little girl. Who knows, he might be a real demon.” He paused. “Well, I’ve never even seen the kid so I can’t tell you whether or not he deserves your trust, but if I were you, I wouldn’t rely on him too much. You know, he might be the reason the Amanto came here in the first place,” he finished.

Saigo didn’t really say much Otose hadn’t already heard of, but it was good to hear the opinion of someone who had been almost as close to the war as Gintoki had been. Still, Saigo had never seen Gintoki and didn’t know how human he usually was. He hadn’t seen him joke around with the silliest things and act like a complete idiot. He also hadn’t seen the poor boy fight for his life with a fever that seemed to have every intention of killing him. He hadn’t been woken up in the middle of the night because his fever was rising and he was having another nightmare, and he hadn’t stayed by the boy’s side until dawn, trying to cool his clammy forehead with cold water and hadn’t seen him quiet down at a simple touch and gentle talk.

Besides, for someone who said that he had something to protect in this bar, he sure had left her all alone pretty fast.

Saigo gave up waiting for a response and picked up another table to bend it straight. Otose kept collecting the glass shards. All she could do was wait.


	6. Chapter 6

This was a stupid idea. Really stupid. Quite possibly even suicidal. But hell, he’d done plenty of supposedly suicidal things and escaped with his life every single time. Sure, Zura yelled at him later, but that was Zura. Zura always yelled at him over the weirdest things. But Zura wasn’t here and besides, since when did Zura ever say anything even remotely important anyway? And why was he thinking about that idiot anyway?

The way Gintoki saw it, there were exactly two possible reasons why Amanto would wreck Otose’s. They had either found him out and wanted revenge, or Mai was not quite as innocent as she looked. Either way the old hag had nothing to do with it. Both were his problems and he would take care of it. He will make sure no one bothers Granny anymore, no matter what.

Finding out where the bison Amantos’ embassy was wasn’t hard at all. It’d only taken him three tries to find someone willing to give explicit directions along with a map. Well, it might have had something to do with the fact that Gintoki might’ve threatened them with a broken nose a little. But that didn’t matter. Now he only needed to trash the place and find out what exactly was going on. If he was really lucky he would find Mai from the embassy, if not, then he’d at least find out who took her and where they were.

Of course, the whole thing would be easier if he had a weapon. A katana would be perfect, but he wouldn’t say no to a naginata either. It had to be something with a sharp blade that could deal some actual damage to 5 centimetres thick armour plated skin covered with a thick fur coat. During the war it had always made a mess out his swords, but nothing else would work on those bastards.

Gintoki remembered a very simple trick he had learned when he first fought against those guys – don’t hold back. Overkill was not a problem with them. Put all you have into your strikes or be ready to taken down from behind. Gintoki hated to admit it, but that lesson very nearly would’ve cost him his life if Takasugi hadn’t been there.

 But anyway, getting a bladed weapon in a city he didn’t quite know at a time when weapons were forbidden was a little problematic. Nothing he couldn’t handle, of course, but it would take time he didn’t really have.

Despite the sword ban there were still plenty of weapons going around in the hands of those who weren’t happy with the current state of the country and it would probably take years before all of them got arrested and their swords confiscated. And even then there would still be some idiots left who would keep fighting this already lost battle. It was stupid. The samurai had lost, they’d been beaten down into the dirt pathetically like flies and there were _still_ some morons left thinking they could make a difference.

Gintoki had already decided. He would never again fight for or against this country that had taken everything from him.

He shook his head. That topic was not one to be touched. Definitely not at a time like this. He needed to save Mai first, the looming mental breakdown could wait. It’d surely come again, pin him down, and suffocate him until he couldn’t even think anymore. He couldn’t escape it, he could only delay it. Maybe one day it’d be better, but Gintoki wasn’t hoping for too much.

A different presence distracted Gintoki from his thoughts. Actually two. Two men were walking along the street, heading his way, arguing about something. The younger one who was really more like a kid, looked amused, while the older… not so much. But the important thing was that they were both carrying swords.

By their black and gold uniforms Gintoki guessed they were some kind of cops which meant that those had to be quality swords. Surely he could _borrow_ one of them. Would save him the trouble of running around the town searching for stuck-up idiots like that gang he beat up the other day.

The kid looked like he would cause more trouble despite giving off the hell-if-I-care vibe, so Gintoki would have to go for the other one. He looked around Gintoki’s age, sturdy, and skilled enough with a sword to know it himself. And he definitely had had more practise with it than Gintoki in the last… how long had it been again? A year? More than that? Yeah, probably more. Whatever. None of that was going to matter the second Gintoki was the one holding the sword.

Getting that sword should be simple enough. He’d just have to stay unnoticeable until he got close, casually bump into him, and use that moment of confusion to get it right from his belt. It sure was a shitty thing to do to anyone, low and cowardly to boot, but he really needed a sword and he doubted they’d be willing to negotiate with him. Besides, being called a common thug would be, well, not wrong.

But it was time to concentrate. Gintoki walked as casually as he could, keeping his head low, defences down, and his intentions hidden. It wasn’t too hard. He’d been in a truly pathetic shape just a few weeks ago and truthfully only recently started to actually recover. It would take more time until he got his full strength back which didn’t stop him from attempting this whole thing. He’d done things like this before while being in much worse shape than he currently was. Like that time when Zura and Takasugi were busy trying to lead the enemy away and Gintoki was left to deal with…

Wait, no, he was almost there, he needed to focus.

Two more metres and the cops hadn’t noticed him yet. This would be over in a flash.

He bumped into the guy, reaching for the sword. He could feel it with his fingers, the familiar touch of smooth silk wrapped around the hilt. He almost had it, just a little more and it would be securely in his hands. Now he only needed to pull it out, disarm the kid and run before they even realised what was happening. Just a little more… Just a little…

Gintoki pulled his hand back and kept walking. His brain vaguely registered the guy’s apology and then his killing intent. He didn’t care. He couldn’t breathe; it felt like there wasn’t enough oxygen. His vision was grey and hazy and he only saw the little patch of ground right in front of him. His stomach cramped painfully. He needed to keep going. At times like this he needed to keep going. Never slow down. No matter what happens, he needed to keep going. If he stopped even for a second he would be killed. More of his companions would die. He needed to protect them. He needed to keep on fighting or they’d lose _him_. He needed…

No.

This was wrong.

This wasn’t the battlefield. He wasn’t fighting. He was in the middle of a city. The war was over. They had lost. They had lost and Shouyou was…

Gintoki clasped a hand over his mouth. Through the haze before his eyes he noticed a narrow alley and ducked into it, got behind the garbage cans and vomited.

When he was done he leaned his back against the opposite wall and slid down. He didn’t know how long he stayed there, but eventually his vision cleared and he could carefully breathe through his nose again. He wasn’t getting enough air, but he didn’t want to risk breathing through his mouth.

How useless. A little girl’s in trouble and there he was, puking up his guts in an alley because he touched a sword. How could he call himself a samurai? Takasugi would never let him live it down if he knew. Or maybe he would, considering what happened…

No use thinking about those things. He needed to come up with another plan.

So if a katana didn’t work he’d just have to get some other weapon. Maybe a naginata. He still needed something with a sharp blade since there was a chance he had to cut…

Wrong thought.

His stomach churned and he almost retched. He barely managed to swallow it down, but the tight feeling in his throat and the bitter taste in his mouth remained, he felt breathless and weak, and a wave of dizziness washed over him. He closed his eyes, waiting for it to pass.

Okay. No blades.

Going in unarmed would be a bad idea, too. Well, he could always snatch one of those bastards’ own weapons, but those heavy nearly two metres long double edged swords that crushed more than cut were not designed for humans and it’d be a pain to handle one of them. His speed would be greatly affected and defence way too low for comfort. Well, as long as Mai got back home safely he didn’t really care what happened to him, but he at least had to make sure he saved her before he got killed or whatever.

If only he still had his old bokutou. He’d lost it at some point after that escape from prison and hadn’t really bothered with finding a new one. Well, there was one in that apartment above Otose’s, but somehow it hadn’t felt quite right. It had been too clean. He didn’t deserve to use something so pure.

But then again, even if it meant sneaking back into the bar, that was the closest weapon he knew he could use. He wasn’t that far from the bar. It would take him much longer to try and find some other bokutou.

Gintoki spent another minute to allow his head to clear and his breathing return to normal. Then he stood slowly, making sure the movement wouldn’t make him sick again. He still felt a little dizzy, but it was nothing he couldn’t deal with. He’d lived through worse things.

It took him about ten minutes to reach the bar and by the time he got there, the two cops he’d seen before were inside talking to Granny.

So someone had called the police after all and that worked out just fine for Gintoki. He used them to keep Granny distracted while he silently snuck upstairs and grabbed the bokutou from the pile of useless things he had planned offering to the old lady from the pawn shop. Guess that would never happen now.

His gaze involuntarily wandered to the rolled-up futon in the living room. He had planned on airing it out before going to sleep. He’d already cleaned the Japanese style room that’d been covered with sawdust and porn magazines. Next would’ve been the living room. The apartment wasn’t big, but it was comfortable.

Oh well, this whole place to live in thing had been way too good for someone like him anyway. Gintoki just wished he hadn’t worked so hard trying to clean it up. He should’ve known it’d never work out well.

Before he left, he locked the door and slipped the key in from the crack between the frame. The old hag had the spare keys, she’d find it the moment she came up here for whatever reason.

Gintoki went down the stairs, feeling like a thief. The bokutou tucked into his obi felt oddly heavy. Granny had made a horrible mistake by taking him in. She should’ve just left him to freeze and starve in that graveyard. He didn’t deserve the warmth she offered and after all this was over and he was still alive, he would make sure to never show his face to her again.

He stopped to listen for a moment after sneaking past the open bar door, but didn’t hear anything interesting. The police didn’t know much about what Amanto were really up to in Edo. They were all either too scared to stick their nose into their business, or too smart. Getting along with Amanto was the key to everything in this town now, and that meant not messing with them even if they were doing something shady. It wouldn’t surprise anyone if the police turned tail the second they heard Amanto had something to do with a case.

At least these two were promising they’d do their best to find Mai. Gintoki doubted they could actually do anything, but it was a start. If he failed then hopefully Mai would still have a chance. No, she’d definitely have a chance. Granny would take care of that. She would make sure the lost child made it back home. And when she did, Granny would first feed her and then tuck her in, making sure she was warm and cosy while calling her a brat.

Gintoki left. He wouldn’t come back here. It was too warm for him.

 


	7. Chapter 7

“Um, excuse me?”

Otose looked up and saw a hesitant man standing at the entrance. He seemed familiar. The man’s nose was crooked a little to the left like it had been broken not too long ago.

And then she remembered a sword pointed directly at her, remembered realising that she was going to die, and remembered a man with white hair standing in front of her in the nick of time, protecting her from the silver edge of the deadly weapon.

“You’re from back then…”

“A-ah, yes! I’m Yamada,” he said quickly with a deep bow. “I heard what happened and, well, since I caused you trouble I just, uh, thought I could maybe help to… clean..?”

Otose tried crushing him with the nastiest glare she could manage and the man winced and hunched his shoulders under the weight of it, but remained standing where he was. She tortured him for half a minute or so, then decided he was good enough for a second chance. She nodded towards the broom in the corner and went back to try and save her precious counter.

She had known his name for a while and also why he had tried to rob her. He’d been drowning in debts and the debt collectors were threatening his family. She never really held a grudge against him for giving her a few nightmares, but also needed him to know that she would not just forgive if he tried something now. And she did blame him a little for the condition Gintoki had been in later that night. Perhaps, she thought, if he hadn’t strained himself like that, he wouldn’t have collapsed onto the futon, shivering and trying to pull the comforter over himself but struggling with it until Otose went and helped him out. And maybe she wouldn’t have seen the momentary panic in his eyes when she stood to bring some water. He’d looked surprised when she came back. Like he didn’t think she’d return.

But Gintoki had recovered just fine eventually and that night really wasn’t something Otose liked to think about.

“Soo…” Yamada started after a while. Otose noticed just then that he’d been fidgeting for a while, trying to speak up. “Shiroyasha-sama– no, that’s not right… Gintoki-sama isn’t here?”

“Obviously.”

“He hasn’t heard what happened yet?”

“He has.”

“Ah, so he went to obliterate the bastards who did it, didn’t he?” he said with a proud note in his tone.

“No.”

“He… didn’t?” Yamada looked absolutely baffled. “But… didn’t a girl get abducted or something? Surely he at least went to get her back.”

“Well, he didn’t. Is that so surprising? Why would he risk his life for someone he barely knows?”

“Well sure, if it was anyone else but that’s… that’s not how Gintoki-sama is. He doesn’t know _how_ to value his own life over anybody else’s. He’s an idiot like that.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, I don’t know how he’s like now, but back during the war he was always the first one to charge in, taking up the front lines. We all said he did it because he was a bloodthirsty demon, but that was really just a good tale to scare the enemy and inspire the newcomers. Most of us knew why he did it. He did it to spare the rest of us as much as he could. He was really just an idiot. Just as human, vulnerable and mortal as the rest of us. Well, maybe not quite as mortal as he did seem to have the Devil’s own luck, but even that didn’t save him all the time. It wasn’t rare for him to sacrifice his own position to save someone else, and then later get chewed out by Katsura-san…”

-.-.-

Gintoki looked at the gates. They truly were a pair of bigass gates. They were so nice and bigass that Gintoki considered ditching his plan and instead just going in from the front gates _._ Preferably with a knock _gentle_ and _polite_ enough that they’d have to order a completely new set of bigass gates.

He’d so love to do it. Stealth had never been his strong suit, but going all out and beating the crap out of everything that got in his way, both animate and inanimate objects, was.

Too bad he couldn’t do it. There was of course the need to sneak in and find out if Mai was really here in this embassy, but there was also the fact that Gintoki quite literally lacked the strength to do it. He’d need more time to recover before attempting something like that. The earlier breakdown or whatever it’d been hadn’t helped either.

He didn’t really want to admit it, but it would’ve been so nice to have either Katsura or Takasugi to help him out, so one could break in from the front while the other snuck in from behind. Even Tatsuma would’ve been good. He could keep the guards distracted while also covering up all other sounds. But Gintoki didn’t have the luxury of comrades anymore, and he actually allowed himself to miss it a little– but later. First he had a mission to complete.

Throwing one last longing glance at the beautiful bigass gates that’d make such a _delightful_ sound when being wrecked, he left to find a way to sneak in unnoticed.

-.-.-

Yamada was getting more confident after Otose stopped trying to crush him with that certain glare. It's like a dam had broken with how much he talked, but he was also sweeping the floor decently enough so Otose didn’t mind. It kept the annoying quiet away, anyway.

“I doubt he remembers it, but he actually saved my life quite a few times. First time was very soon after Shiroyasha and the others joined. They came with a fresh batch of recruits, picked up from Choshu. The new troops were the same as always, for the most part. Some geezers with only their life left to lose, youngsters thinking a war was some glorious thing to earn honour in, and the proud samurai from reputable families who said they only wanted to protect the country. But there was also an odd bunch of children. I don’t know who they bribed with what to be allowed to fight, but there they were, probably only fourteen in their first battle.

“We felt sorry for them, so we tried to keep an eye on them. We thought that maybe after a few battles, after seeing the horrors of the battlefield, they’d desert. We wouldn’t even have tried to stop them or punish them. We thought that kids that young shouldn’t die in a meaningless war, no matter how loud and annoying they were.

“But it wasn’t long after they joined that we realised those kids were the ones keeping an eye on us instead. They were good, better than anything I’ve ever seen and there wasn’t a trace of inexperience in them.

“Actually, they were a bit _too_ good. So good, that some of soldiers said the reason why the kids did so well on the field wasn’t because they were good with swords or experienced in battle, but rather because they were spies and the enemy troops had just been instructed not to attack them. Most didn’t believe those rumours, of course, but some did and in a stressful situation that was all it took to make the others doubt as well. I can imagine it wasn’t easy for the brats to make us trust them after that.

“Anyway, no one really wanted to work together with them, but at the same time they weren’t trusted to be left alone either, so they split them up and made each unit have one of the little monsters. We had the misfortune of having to deal with the worst one of them. A weird brat with a silver perm, wearing a white uniform like a goddamn idiot, making himself the main target for any enemy out there who had the brains enough for primary thought process. And yet even back then the brat was strong enough to survive his own idiocy, fighting like a demon and cutting through enemy forces like butter.”

-.-.-

It stank. Reeked, even. Worse than his own feet after a busy day. Way worse. Maybe even almost as bad as that time he forgot he’d stolen some eggs from their supplies and hid them inside his spare haori to attempt to bake a cake when he got the chance. Zura nearly fainted when he had the misfortune to be the one to find it back then. No one could go near it without gagging, so they figured it could be used as a bio-weapon and threw it at the Amanto in the next battle.

It killed four.

Memories aside, as far as Gintoki could tell, this was unfortunately the only way in. He’d walked around the entire compound twice, and doing it a third time would definitely catch someone’s attention, so he was left with no other option, anyway.

So he pinched his nose and ducked into the wide sewer pipe right by the river and was immediately greeted by a wave of the pungent stink of something he didn’t want to know the name of. A few meters in and he tripped and almost fell on something unidentifiable under the wastewater, nearly landing face first in the green slop. His stomach cramped painfully at the thought of being covered with it and it actually made him glad that he had puked everything out before.

He leaned one hand on the wall of the pipe for balance, the other remaining over his nose and mouth. Thick, weirdly green wastewater slushed lazily under his sandals and between his toes and he cringed when he could almost _feel_ the stench clinging onto his kimono. He’d have to burn all his clothes later.

-.-.-

“It was, I think, our third or fourth battle together when a flaw in our strategy put us in a really bad spot with Inui troops attacking us with all their guns and lasers. We were heavily outnumbered twenty to at least five hundred and there was no way for us to retreat even if we could’ve and there was no help in sight. We couldn’t even send anyone to call for reinforcements. If the enemy breached us, they would’ve reached our camp so we needed every man we had to hold them off with the cost of our lives or risk losing most of our comrades and maybe even the war.

“Being outnumbered like that, we were quickly overwhelmed and only held on as long as we did thanks to Gintoki-sama constantly covering us. It’s like he was everywhere at once, always watching our backs, reflecting swords aimed at us and warning us every time the enemy was ready to shoot another round.

“Well, of course he couldn’t keep it up forever and we kept losing men one by one. In the end there was only five of us left and we stood there side to side and absolutely breathless, while it became completely clear that there was no way we could last more than few minutes against a force like that. We were about to give up, let the enemy rip us to shreds just to make the end easier for us but then… do you know what Gintoki-sama did?

“He told us all to run for help and leave him behind. We didn’t even have the time to call him an idiot before he grinned like a madman and took off on his own.

“We wanted to stop him and one even wanted to follow, but we were all exhausted and honestly couldn’t give a crap about some obnoxious brat anymore, so we let him do whatever he wanted. If he wanted to die before the rest of us then, well, that was fine by us. We figured he’d give us a minute or so to collect ourselves behind a cliff and maybe time to send a short prayer to whichever god happened to be nearby, anyway. But before we could do that we realised that the enemy wasn’t even trying to pursue us anymore.”

-.-.

Gintoki pushed the heavy metal cover off, trying his hardest to do it silently. He peeked around and found himself in a pitch black room. It was cold so he figured he was still underground, and when he listened carefully and didn’t hear a sound, he assumed the room to be empty. He climbed up and out but covered the manhole only partially in case he needed to make a hasty escape. Only then he allowed himself to take a deep, much needed breath. The air was musty and stale and it tasted like heaven after the sewers and he greedily breathed it until he felt he got most of the scent out of his nose and lungs.

He didn’t have much time though, so he stretched his right arm out, left staying on the hilt of the bokutou and searched for the nearest wall through the darkness. Everything would’ve been completely silent if only his sandals weren’t making a disgusting squelching sound with every step he made. He didn’t really want to dump them, either. He had no idea what was waiting for him and being barefooted in an alien territory was something he’d rather not do.

Something hit him in the face hard with a low metallic sound and Gintoki had the bokutou out and ready to parry before he realised what was happening.

The sound died off slowly and nothing else moved. Gintoki shifted a little but froze when his cheek brushed against something cold. Then he slowly reached out and touched… a single metal pipe.

He bit back a curse and carefully moved around it. Changing his strategy he slowed down a bit and moved his arm in front of him in a wide arc. Soon he skimmed his knuckles against a concrete wall painfully and this time he let out a quiet hiss and squeezed his hand under his other arm for a moment to relieve the stinging pain. But now he had solid footing and it didn’t take long for him to reach a metal door. He felt around but couldn’t find a knob or a handle or anything and it didn’t move when he pushed, so he searched the walls next to it and found a single switch.

He adjusted his stance, pulled out his bokutou, took a deep breath and then pushed it, ready for anything that might appear from behind that door.

-.-.-

“I’d never seen something so fast and so… _lethal_. We didn’t really even _see_ him fight. There was just a flash of white and a carnage behind and by the time we realised what was happening he’d taken out tenth of the remaining enemy army.

“It took a while for us to pull ourselves together after seeing what he was capable of, but once we did we also realised what he’d done for us. He offered to be the main fighting force all by himself. He covered all four of us and logically, with how he was fighting, he should’ve died within the first minute. And that’s the weird thing. He didn’t die. He didn’t even slow down, just kept going and going and for a moment we thought he’d win the entire battle for us.”

Yamato paused to pick up a shovel and sweep the dust and debris onto it.

“Well, that wasn’t possible, of course. A few minutes later either the enemy changed strategy or he made a mistake, but he got surrounded and we thought that was the end of his rampage. That’s what got us moving again. We sent someone out to call for reinforcements and tried to support Gintoki-sama the best we could with bows and arrows and rocks. We thought about joining him, but we knew there was a reason he'd sent us away. If we were down there he'd have to focus on protecting us instead.

“We finally lost sight of Gintoki-sama just as the reinforcements arrived. Apparently they’d noticed our struggle and were already on their way when our runner caught them. We were quick to attack thinking that maybe, if we acted fast enough we could still save Gintoki-sama, but we didn’t hold our hopes too high. Turned out we didn’t need to, either.

“He just showed up again out of nowhere, drenched in blood that was… _mostly_ not his own, but grinning and very much _alive_ and ready to join us again. The general told him to retreat and get his wounds treated but the kid just shrugged and said he was fine enough to see this through.

"And he did. He kept fighting until the end and only after the enemy was forced to retreat and it was all over, he collapsed. We were later told his injuries were mostly minor and the blood loss and the exhaustion had finally just taken their toll, but it was still amazing how he kept fighting when he probably had trouble even staying upright. Well he was on his feet again the next morning so maybe it wasn't that bad anyway..."

Yamada set the broom down decisively.

"Do you see, Otose-dono?" he asked. "Gintoki-sama  _never_ fought for his own life, but he was always ready to fight for someone else's even if it meant he'd die in the process. He was a bit too good to actually _die_ , of course, and he didn't really seek it out himself, but he would've died for us in a heartbeat. "

Otose smiled a little. She'd wait until nightfall before acting.

-.-.-

For a long moment nothing happened. Then a dim old light bulb flickered on in the middle of the room and Gintoki squeezed his eyes shut against the dusty yellow light.

It took a moment for him to get used to it, but once he did, he took a closer look at the room. It was empty for the most part, only a few dusty cardboard boxes in one corner and the despicable metal pipe in the middle of it. His eye hurt so he flipped it off, but then turned back to the door. Only now he saw a note pinned onto the door, yellow from age and humidity and with a large writing on it,

“DO NOT CLOSE OR YOU _WILL_ GET STUCK!”

Gintoki groaned. If he was going to wreck doors anyway he could’ve just as well entered from the front gates. But now it was too late and there was no way he’d go back into the sewers unless he really had to. Besides, it’d be a nice surprise for the bastards if he invaded them from below.

The door gave up with a metallic screech after only two expertly placed hits and fell to the floor with a loud crash. In the room it revealed, Gintoki quickly recognised a few things. One, unlike the previous room, this one was warm and well-lighted. Two, there were lots of screens on one of the walls. Three, this was an extremely convenient room for him to end up in. And four, he wasn’t alone.

Two faces were staring at him with wide eyes, mouths hanging slightly open in surprise. They were small, slim and furry, and would’ve reminded Gintoki of goats if they weren’t so colourful. One of them was blue and the other green and both of them had a pair of light pink horns curved around the back of their heads.

The green one recovered faster and moved a hand towards some kind of button on the panel in front of them, but Gintoki was even faster and a swift move with his bokutou knocked them out before they could push it. Another quick move and he had already pushed the edge of the bokutou under the blue one’s throat.

Everything stood perfectly still for a moment, like a battlefield before the first attack, both sides just waiting, watching…

A microphone on the panel gave out a buzzing sound and they both flinched at the sound.


	8. Chapter… what? I forgot? Like… 8?

 

The microphone buzzed a second time and the blue alien cocked their head questioningly. Gintoki nodded, but pushed harder on the bokutou when the Amanto slowly pressed a button on the panel.

_“Heeey, I heard a loud sound, is everything okay down there?”_

Gintoki shrugged as he heard the lazy voice and pulled the bokutou back a bit. The Amanto breathed in slowly, then pushed another button.

“Yeah, everything’s fine. Yoshiko-chan suddenly had to sprint to the toilet and spilled her instant ramen all over the floor.”

_“Ughhh again? When she gets back, tell her she’ll be cleaning up the mess herself. The cleaning lady quit last night.”_

“I’ll tell her that. Anything else?”

_“No, that’s all. Just keep an eye on the cameras.”_

“Yees, boss.”

_“I’m serious, Yuuki-san. I really mean it this time, alright? Because I heard_ those guys _caused some trouble in town again today. We may have to deal with that Shinsengumi or whatever they’re called again.”_

Gintoki shifted and the Amanto eyed him carefully.

“Oooh? What happened?”

_“They trashed a bar or something. Dunno, I haven’t heard much else.”_

“Right.”

The line went quiet for a moment and Gintoki already relaxed his stance a bit, but then it buzzed again.

_“… You haven’t complained about anything, Yuuki-san. Sure everything’s fine? Nothing on the cameras? Is there, perhaps, someone standing next to you, holding a blade to your throat and making you say these things?”_

Gintoki raised an eyebrow and the blue alien frowned.

“I haven’t complained, boss? You want complaining?” She delicately pushed the bokutou away from her throat and leaned closer to the microphone. “Where should I even start? There’s so much to complain about I don’t even know where to start! This room is too moist, there’s no air in here, and this morning when I came to work a big fat rat was calmly eating its breakfast in the trashcan. I’m actually surprised all these computers still work in these conditions!”

“ _Er…”_

“The food they offer here is so awful we need to bring our own instant ramen every single day. And the toilet is in the other end of the goddamn house and it’s almost always clogged.”

_“Yuuki-san…”_

“It’s really no wonder the cleaning lady quit again. No one wants to unclog the toilets in every five minutes! And you know that bigass guard named Tatsumi? That guy always harasses me and Yoshiko-chan. I swear, if he touches me again, I will stab him with a pen and kick him in the balls. Do you want me to go on?”

“ _Uh, no. that’s quite alright. I’ll look into… everything when I get the time. Thank you, Yuuki-san.”_

“It’s always a pleasure, boss. You know it is.”

_“Of course it is.”_

It was quiet for a moment, then Yuuki pressed the button again.

“Oh, boss? One more thing.”

_“Hmm?”_

“I think I’m going to need a drink after work today.”

_“Okay, gotcha. I’ll have to buy you, right?”_

“Possibly two drinks. Maybe three. Or seven.”

_“Right, right. Meet you at 8?”_

“Yeah. Thanks, boss.”

The line went dead and Yuuki stayed completely still even as Gintoki put the bokutou away. When he was sure she wouldn’t do anything, he took his time and studied the screens on the wall.

“Do these show the entire compound?”

“Yes. Is Yoshiko-chan okay?”

“Hmm? Oh, the other one? Probably. Goats have hard skulls and I didn’t hit very hard. She’ll wake in a bit.”

“We are not goats, actually,” she remarked, but Gintoki ignored it.

“Are there any rooms that aren’t shown?”

“There are a few rooms, but only the ambassador’s cabinet is important from them. He doesn’t like to be watched all the time for some reason. There is a camera in there though and I could switch over to it any time, but he’s not in right now anyway. Oh and the room you so rudely entered from, that one doesn’t have a camera. But we sure as hell are going to install one now. Can I please check on her?”

Gintoki saw her throwing worried glances at her companion. Maybe he even felt a twinge of guilt. Though, remembering he’d only eaten the small bowl of eggs over rice Granny gave him that morning, it might’ve just been hunger.

“Sure,” he drawled. “But first show me the ambassador’s cabinet.”

“You can change the cameras with these,” she showed him a handful on buttons, then quickly left to her friend’s side.

Gintoki carefully went over every single screen and all the cameras, but didn’t notice anything suspicious. There were a few guards moving about, just like the huge bison Amanto he remembered from the war, and some smaller, colourful goat-like Amanto sitting behind desks working with some fancy documents or whatever, but that was more or less all he could see. Even the ambassador’s room was empty, just like he’d been told.

“Do you have a map of this place or something?” he asked.

“In the top drawer. The blue one,” Yuuki said from behind him. “Are you going to tell me why you knocked Yoshiko-chan out?”

“I’m looking for someone.” Gintoki pulled the drawer open and found some scrolls. He took out the only blue one and rolled it open on the single desk in the room, pushing the empty instant ramen cups on the floor. There were lots of tiny white and red lines on it and he winced quietly. Zura was so much better at this, but he managed when he had to. He just needed to find a room where they could potentially hide Mai.

“Those bastards who trashed a bar in town today,” he said slowly. “They took something important and I want it back.”

“Oh, well, then you won’t find it here.” Gintoki heard her sigh in relief. He turned around and watched her trying to wake her companion up unsuccessfully. “Yes, we come from the same planet and ultimately it’s us who have to clean up after they’re done, but they really don’t have anything to do with us here. I’ve heard they work under some loan shark. I don’t know all the details, but boss has warned us to stay away from their nest so I do know where they are. If you’d hand me that white map from that same drawer… no, not that one, the large one.”

Gintoki pulled out a long scroll and threw it to the Amanto. She caught it neatly and rolled it out, flattening it against the ground. The thin black lines formed the bird’s-flight view of Edo, with the grey spot in the middle marking the Terminal, and the large square on one side indicating the shogun’s palace.

But the Amanto had no interest in either of those landmarks. Instead she followed a road down to a grey mass of streets, twining and looping each other like a nest of drunken snakes.

“Here it is,” she said, pointing at a seemingly random spot.

“Er. Kabukicho?”

“Yes, that. Kabuwhatever. That’s where their headquarters are. There, now you know. So go away. Good luck.”

“Uh… got any more _specific_ directions?”

“What do I look like to you? A walking atlas? GPS maybe? I can’t really read maps that well, okay? I know how to get there but can’t show it on… Oh…”

Gintoki smiled.

“Oh, poop,” she said.

-.-.-

“Nope, no way. You can’t make me. I absolutely refuse to do it.”

“Quit your whining and jump in already. You could use some fresh air. Staying in eating ramen and watching flashing screens all day is bad for your health, apparently. I heard that from TV last night.”

“ _Fresh_ air is good, yes. This is not fresh. This is not even remotely fresh.”

“Fresher than what you had in there.”

“It _is_ stuffy there, isn’t it? I keep telling boss that but they’re still not doing anything about it. So annoying.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever. Get going already.”

“I can’t leave Yoshiko-chan all alone!”

“Well, the longer you whine the longer she’s gonna stay alone.” He pointed to where Yoshiko-chan was tied up to a chair, still unconscious and not showing any signs of waking up. “Maybe you want to stall so long she’d wake up and stay here alone and tied up in a dark and cold room? I’ve heard people go nuts like that.” He tapped the wooden handle of his bokutou. “Or would you prefer me making sure she’d never wake up again?”

She eyed the bokutou. “Humans are so heartless.”

“Yes, we are,” he said without batting an eye. “Look, if you don’t climb down yourself, I will push you. Trust me, you do not want to land face first in that.”

She squinted her eyes. “You wouldn’t.”

Gintoki raised an eyebrow. “You sure you wanna try me? I’m pretty pissed off right now.”

 “And cruel. Heartless and cruel,” she said, and carefully lowered herself down the metal ladder and into the sewers. “Ughh it smells disgusting. I hate this. I hate you.”

Gintoki only shrugged at that. He gave one last look to the other alien and then followed Yuuki down. He’d lifted up the heavy metal door to make it look like nothing had ever happened and so if anyone came to check on them, they wouldn’t find the unconscious Amanto right away. It was cruel, but it was a way to make Yuuki lead the way and get them to the hideout fast, if she wanted to come back quick and save her friend.

The moment Gintoki touched the ground he heard a loud splash behind him. He turned quick to see his hostage sprinting through the wastewater towards the exit. He cursed and ran after her, trying to catch her, but she was too fast. She got out of the tunnel a whole second before Gintoki did, and he drew his bokutou, ready to throw it at the Amanto and knock her out before she could alert any guards.

As soon as he got out of the tunnel though, he stopped. Yuuki was crouching down a little further away and Gintoki could hear her gasping for breath. He went closer to hear what she was saying.

“Oh. My god. That. Was the _worst_ thing I’ve ever smelled. You know, you can kill me and kill Yoshiko-chan and kill my entire clan for all I care, but I _will not_ be going back there ever again. Uhh, I feel like I need to burn all my clothes and take at least six showers.” She swallowed audibly a few times. “Shit, I think I’m gonna puke…”

Gintoki stepped away and gave her a few moments to gather herself. When she didn’t puke, however, he poked her with a foot.

“Quit stalling. Get up.”

She fussed and complained and scoffed, but eventually got up and Gintoki let her lead him in the general direction of Kabukichou.

It was quite a long walk and for a good while they walked in relative silence. They got a lot of odd looks from other people around, after all, it was a rare sight to see a human and an Amanto walk together fairly peacefully, but Gintoki paid them no mind. The weather was nice for the moment, there was no sun, but it wasn’t too cold. The wind was steadily picking up and gathering clouds, and Gintoki thought it’d rain in a few hours. A nice storm always added a good dramatic touch to battles, but he didn’t really care for getting drenched, so he kept making remarks about her guide being too slow.

They made it to the first street of Kabukichou and she stopped in her tracks and Gintoki lost all patience.

“Do you need a good kick in the ass to start goddamn moving?” he demanded loudly

“Stop rushing me! Geez, just give me a minute to remember. I’ve only been there like twice.”

“Well make that minute shorter!”

“Typical human. Always so impatient,” she hissed. “What’s so important anyway that you need to hurry?”

“Why do you care?”

“I don’t,” she said. “Just would be nice to know why I’m out here ignoring boss’ orders in the first place.”

Gintoki watched her slowly studying the buildings around them, head a little tilted as if thinking hard. He shrugged. “It’s a brat.”

She hummed sympathetically and turned left towards a larger yellow building. “I see now. A product of yours, I assume?”

“No.”

“Oh,” she sounded disappointed. “Then why care?”

“Does it matter why?”

“Of course it does. If you’re ready to break into an embassy and destroy a group of gangsters, then the child must be valuable. If the child was yours I’d understand, but they’re not. Are they the offspring of an emperor? A future king perhaps?”

“Highly doubt that. Would be nice to get a huge reward out of this, though.”

“Then I don’t see why go through all this trouble? If the child was taken, then sure, very tragic, but it’s a part of the universe’s big plan. It was inevitable.”

"The universe’s big plan? You really believe in that crap?”

“It’s not whether I believe or not. The scientists at home have proven that the universe has a bigger plan with all of what is going on. The good and the bad likewise.”

“Okay. Let’s say you’re right and there is a bigger plan. After all, eeeverybody loves the universe and the stars and shit. But you know what the universe really is? It’s just a bunch of burning gas orbs and a loooot of empty space. Trust me, I learned that in school. And all that crapload of empty space doesn’t give a shit whether you live or die or are happy or in pain. It just is what it’s always been and compared to it we’re all like fleas. Even less, actually. Like flea crap, maybe. Dried and pulverized flea crap? Yes, that works,” Gintoki nodded shortly. “Anyway, we’re so insignificant that whatever this pulverized flea crap is doing down here has no meaning to the universe, and so whatever’s the universe’s big plan has no meaning to us. I don’t care if something is inevitable or whatever. If I don’t like what’s happening, then I will do what I can to change that.”

“Tch. How irrational. Typical earthling.” She mumbled something under her nose and turned a corner, then asked, “Isn’t it hard to live with yourself when you try your best to fix something that turns out to be unfixable? Isn’t it hard knowing that your best just isn’t enough and will never be enough?”

Gintoki sighed. “Sometimes it is. But I find it harder to know that I _didn’t_ try my hardest to fix something. Anyway, how much further is it?”

“Learn to be patient!” she snapped. “Should be just around the corner if I remember it right.”

She sneaked closer to the corner and peeked around it.

“Oh. Okay, I was wrong. It’s around the next corner.”

Gintoki grabbed one of her horns and pulled up until her feel almost didn’t touch the ground anymore. She yelped and tried to loosen his grip by scratching his hand.

“If you lied and brought me to a wrong place then…”

“Get your filthy hands off me! It is the right place! Around the next corner, go see for yourself and then you can kill me!”

Most of the people on the street had stopped to see what the fuss was about, so Gintoki let her go.

“You go first,” he spit angrily.

“Fine, whatever,” she said and sneaked slowly to the next corner. Gintoki kept a hand on his bokutou and followed her. “See, asshole? Told you it was here, asshole.”

Gintoki looked as well and indeed, there was one of the bison guards standing in guard in front of one of the houses on that narrow street. He analysed the location quickly. There was visibly no gap between that house and the ones on either side of it, so he couldn’t sneak in from the side. There probably was a way to go around and attack from back, but that didn’t sound very appealing. In fact, all Gintoki wanted to do was just use the front door and trash everything that got in his way. Yeah, he decided that was the best course of action. If not strategically, then for himself at least.

He grinned. This crap day could still turn out to be fun.

“You are welcome, asshole,” Yuuki said next to him.

 


End file.
